Black ear shark catfish, ~1', in 4500 gal, lone survivor, 1 for 5

[thebiggerthebetter]

Its story begins in this thread that's largely about its nemesis vulture catfish ----- https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...ere-6-vultures-and-5-black-ears.675034/page-2 ---- so I thought I'd give the black ear its own thread.

Here is a video update on the lone surviving black ear that's about a foot now and pretty thick. It's skittishness / nervousness visually has disappeared by now, probably due to its growth and the tank size but I'm sure if I were to try catching it, it would spaz out in a terrible fashion.

It looks like the tank mates don't bother it anymore because it's has been a while since I saw any damage on it which helps it calm down a lot. It feeds on a variety of pellets with enviable vigor. I've not noted yet if it takes fish but I've not paid enough attention.

 

[Skyeboy]

That thing is a blimp.love it

 

[Renegade Aquatics]

Very nice looking fish, however forgot to ask this in my comment. How big do these guys get? As far as I'm aware they are a smaller Pangasius species, no?

 

[headbanger_jib]

What a beauty there

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Appreciate the feedback.

Both FishBase and Fishing World Records place black ear's max size at the same number as IDS, namely 130 cm = 4'4".

As for the captivity, even for IDS I've only heard anecdotes and rumors of 3'-4' IDS raised in captivity, never seen one alive or pictured. My biggest one reached only 28" after ~7-8 years.

Black ears are kept very rarely, a million times less so than IDS, so we appear to know exceedingly little about them.

I know IDS is farmed very widely. Having read that most or all large-growing Pangasiidae are farmed in SE Asia (and many are hybridized, hence, I suppose, Mekong Giant Catfish identification problems as hinted by fugupuff ), I assume black ears are too and what we get may be refuse black ears from the farming operations. This is a supposition. For IDS, that's a given. Hence the relatively meager growth and sizes of our home-grown IDS.

The same applies to paroons that grow 2x bigger than IDS and black ears in the wild, BTW. Very rarely do we see a paroon over 4' raised in private hands, in fact, TLkm is the only one that comes to mind and his is not 4' yet, IIRC.

... I am not talking Public Aquaria when I speak of captivity because their fish sources differ drastically from ours and it is not a fair comparison. Hobbyists and professional Aquarists cannot be lumped together conveniently. Many of Aquaria too can afford to get a full grown adult from farms or the wild and into their exhibit, hence, circumventing "raising in captivity" in the way we think of it.

 

[pelleeklund]

You sir, have a large tank full of awesome fish. I have a black ear myself, only about 7 inches, so it's nice to know it will settle down a bit and still look really great when it grows. Thanks for the video.

 

[AG458]

Just a quick question-

When he was younger, did he like swimming up and down the wall? Mine does and I don't want him to bruise his nose or mess it up.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Just a quick question-

When he was younger, did he like swimming up and down the wall? Mine does and I don't want him to bruise his nose or mess it up.

More so left and right on the window. For many months with some intermissions. Then stopped, probably about a year ago. I was worried it'd rub off the skin but the pacing turned out rather inconsequential.

Overall, this behavior is consistent with them being even more nervous on average than an IDS catfish.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

 

[kendragon]

Good save. I noticed in your silver dollar video that the dorado was released from the jerk tank. Is he doing good on parole.