"The Mega Megalodoras race, who will Irwinni?"

krichardson

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What is your all experience with this guys?
Are they more active when you have more than one in your tank?
I have one about 10 Inches+ but i never see him swimming around.
Maybe he needs more time to get used to his new home.
I had two together in a tank and they both rarely showed themselves during the day but I could coax them out every now and then with a few sinking pellets....and that was if the tank lights were off.
 

thebiggerthebetter

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What is your all experience with this guys?
Are they more active when you have more than one in your tank?
I have one about 10 Inches+ but i never see him swimming around.
Maybe he needs more time to get used to his new home.
IME the number of them doesn't matter to their reclusiveness. In general they are a strictly nocturnal, highly reclusive fish. They love to eat and when comfortable would come out for feed often but even that not always. An irwini swimming around leisurely, like that of Justarn shown above, is a huge exception to the rule IMO.

They are called giant raphael catfish and raphael catfish are renown for their maniacal hiding.
 

thebiggerthebetter

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Hi all this is a thread me and koltsixx have had a toy with on my irwini thread, we are planning getting some if not all the active members keeping irwini ( and other megalodoras) to club together and have a race on the growth of their catfish... koltsixx is a moderator and has agreed to amend this post listing members and their catfish sizes. should be good fun.

kind of hoping there are a few other keepers out there who want to join in!-) please chime in if you are keeping one.

heres mine, currently around 9-10 inch i think, im going to net him and get a measurement against a tape measure asap, anyway here he is and the contestants so far!

*Justarn* starting size 9 inches
View attachment 1017734

*Koltsixx* starting size 6.5 inches
View attachment 1017735

*Houie925* starting size 7-8 inches
View attachment 1017736

*Thebiggerthebetter* starting size group of 4 approx. 12 inches
View attachment 1017880

*Snake8myelbo* starting size 2 at 12 inches
View attachment 1018257

View attachment 1017734
Would everyone please update sizes on theirs!?

Our 5-pack is around 16"-18" and this is 5 years later! Justarn's OP is from June 2014, when ours were around 12". What a pitiful, pitiful growth of 1" or less per year :(

Rpul Rpul , check our how yellow the OP fish is, also in the UK, haha... coincidence?
 

amazontank

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Excellent ? that's what I was expecting actually and growth slow down after the 14"-18" mark.
I been feeding every night and these guys come to the top for food.
Also mine came in skinny so some of the growth I'm seeing is just girth.
I was thinking if they don't stop growing soon I'm gonna end up cruising them to your big tank Victor!
 
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thebiggerthebetter

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That's the difference. Mine are very reclusive and prefer to feed without leaving their hides, whatever feed the tank current blows into there. Hence great growth versus dismal growth.

Mine have been scarred badly for a few years in a 4500 gal where they couldn't cope with assertiveness of some tank mates so all they did was lying in a hudle for weeks and months not coming out anywhere.

You keep them as long as you possibly can and enjoy them :) As for your visit which you had already threatened me with, what feels like already a couple years ago, I am still waiting for that... haha

Hope your folks doing ok and it was worth the coast to coast move.
 
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