My first big amazon catfish: leiarius Marmoratus
- Thread starter ColeFishing
- Start date
Nice marking on that little guy. I had one from a bit smaller than that and he grew to about 22" before he got out of hand and noone else could really get any food. Actually in the process of getting it back from a store I donated it to. Awesome fish, Hope you can house it tho :0)
3-31-2011
....
9-11-2012'
Once I started keeping a ray with it I began feeding much more frequently to make sure the ray was getting food and then the Achara cat got super girthy. I kept it for a few months after this last pic and it got massive. Enjoy and get ready lol. Mine didnt like other cats very much but played nice with much smaller fish as seen in pic, left my ray, polypterus and lungfish alone. However it ate a RTC, rtc x tsn, and killed another RTC and rtc x tsn. They are territorial towards other cats. He was so powerful that I couldnt even fill my tank all the way as hed splash water all over my floor. I do miss it and I am in the process of trying to get it back and keep him in a 6ft diameter tub minimum. Lets see if the store I gave him to will budge.
Picture below was 3-31-2012. Kinda screwed up the post pics...
....
9-11-2012'
Once I started keeping a ray with it I began feeding much more frequently to make sure the ray was getting food and then the Achara cat got super girthy. I kept it for a few months after this last pic and it got massive. Enjoy and get ready lol. Mine didnt like other cats very much but played nice with much smaller fish as seen in pic, left my ray, polypterus and lungfish alone. However it ate a RTC, rtc x tsn, and killed another RTC and rtc x tsn. They are territorial towards other cats. He was so powerful that I couldnt even fill my tank all the way as hed splash water all over my floor. I do miss it and I am in the process of trying to get it back and keep him in a 6ft diameter tub minimum. Lets see if the store I gave him to will budge.
Picture below was 3-31-2012. Kinda screwed up the post pics...
Wow that's some impressive growth. What size tank where you keeping it in?
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Was initially in a 125 then when he got about 12" noone else really got more than scraps once he was full so I put him in a 90 gallon all by his lonesome. That's when I tried to keep the other cats with him and that failed. After he reached the width of the 90 gallon I put him by himself in the 125. Slowly reintroduced my fish back to the 125 with him as he didn't eat anyone that wasn't another catfish. And then finally he went into the tank I still have which is a 150 breeder (6x2x20" ). I bought the 125 for him, then the 90 just for him and then the 150breeder just for him but he managed to still outgrow everything and at the time I was living on a 6th floor apt and didn't want to risk anything larger than the 150 gallon.
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How did it do in the 6' x 2' tank? I have mine in a 180 which is 6' x 2' x 2'.
UPDATE: good news! I've had him almost a month and he has grown over an inch. Also he is starting to swim around more and venture out for food. And best of all, I hand fed him today! He took two large pieces of shrimp right out of my hand.
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He did ok in there for a while but once he got larger he started banging into things and when spooked he injured himself on my driftwood. BIGGER is BETTER when housing a catfish with "whiskers" each almost the lenngth of its body.
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Yeah I've heard a lot about how catfish are flighty when their whiskers touch the glass. But the one at my LFS is 20"+ and is kept in a 7'x2' and does just fine. Not flighty or skittish at all.
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