Personal "revision" of the Auchenoglanis giraffe catfish genus recognizes 5 species in the trade

[thebiggerthebetter]

Our personal, experience-based, humble amateur overview of the genus of Auchenoglanis giraffe catfish notes 5 kinds that we see in the aquarium trade.

Answers to the eternal questions:

- Is my giraffe catfish a dwarf kind?
- What kind is it?
- How big will it grow?
- What tank is proper for it?
- Will it outgrow my tank?

ID pointers for the kinds:

- biscutatus
- bouche
- niger
- volta
- congo/wittei

 

[Yellowcat]

Viktor, excellent presentation and a thoughtful, practical and useful guide to help I.D. the most popular species found in the trade! This will help to reduce the confusion that often exists when folks don't regularly observe the subtle differences found in these species as you have noted. Nice to see that some of my photo's were useful as part of your effort. I should note that the photo in the bottom center of your front page, my former female a. wittei @ around 14" TL at the time was sold to a friend locally some years ago, anyway he recently re-homed the fish to a new keeper and it is now @ 28" TL and probably near 10 years old or so. Thanks for your educational production!

 

[suckerfish]

Very nice informative presentation! Thank you

 

[xenacanth9]

Thank you, very helpful

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Viktor, excellent presentation and a thoughtful, practical and useful guide to help I.D. the most popular species found in the trade! This will help to reduce the confusion that often exists when folks don't regularly observe the subtle differences found in these species as you have noted. Nice to see that some of my photo's were useful as part of your effort. I should note that the photo in the bottom center of your front page, my former female a. wittei @ around 14" TL at the time was sold to a friend locally some years ago, anyway he recently re-homed the fish to a new keeper and it is now @ 28" TL and probably near 10 years old or so. Thanks for your educational production!

Thank you so much, my dear friend! You've been my teacher for the past 10 years on the g-cats, so a lot of thanks and credit (good or bad, haha...) goes back to you! Feel free to point out holes or errors or challenge ID in some of the photos on which you might not agree, should you find such.

 

[RD.]

Great example of the type of topics and information that we should be sharing on MFK. Well done, Viktor.

 

[FM17]

I love that presentation. It was cool to see one of my fish in it. I got some decent pictures of one of my biscutatus recently. I also recently picked another one up one from different vendor that looks biscutatus as well. Growth for my original 2 is still steady with both in the 5-7 inch range. Still a little small to go in my 210 but getting there. Truth be told, I have enjoyed watching them grow out in a 40 gallon right next my bed.

 

[FM17]

As what I once thought was another biscutatus, now appears not to be. What do you guys think?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Looks like biscutatus (according to my sorting) to my eye. Why do you doubt?

 

[FM17]

To my eye it has more of the classic giraffe chain pattern compared to my biscutatus which has the rows of black spots.