Bumble Bee Catfish
- Thread starter Lund
- Start date
well, there are several species of catfish under the name, "bumble bee".
if it's the asian kind, then it's a small, shy and peaceful community fish.
if it's the giant south american kind, then it'll get about 10", territorial and have a voracious appetite.
there are other species, but they're rarely seen.
if it's the asian kind, then it's a small, shy and peaceful community fish.
if it's the giant south american kind, then it'll get about 10", territorial and have a voracious appetite.
there are other species, but they're rarely seen.
Yeah...there a a bunch of catfish that go by this name. I used to have an Asian Bumble Bee. Gorgous fish. It grew to 8" and would have been good for a mid-size fish community. I've also had the South American Bumble Bee Cat, but this cat was small. It was no bigger than 2" and it was pretty peacefull. Both of them were great and the one thing they had in common was that they both liked to hide.
They come out so rarely that you can really notice their growth when you do see them. Its like a special treat when you get s quick glimpse. Cool fish!
Are you sure you don't have tha backwards? I could have sworn the SA one was the smaller.
I have one from Petsmart that was labeled a SA bumblebee. They are fun little fish and very attractive, mine comes out evey day to eat and zips around the tank...unlike the rapheal cat I once had who hid even with food in the water.
I've had mine for over a year now and it's about 2" long. I drop a couple shrimp pellets by his hide twice a week and he gets frozen mysis shrimp once a week and whatever flake food that gets past the other fish. It's a beautiful, hardy fish and luckily where his hide is I'm able to see him whenever I want. 
I agree with everyone here. It is a very nice fish to keep, but don't plan on seeing it everyday.
He's a freak, comes out even if there is no food to be had.
Uhm just for clairfication its the south american bumble bee that stays small about 2.2" not the asian. The asian bumble bee grows larger about 6 inches. Both will eat anything that fits in its mouth but if you have larger fish then it, it will work fine in a comm. tank. Both south american and asian are noctournal feeders and tend to hide alot esp. where it is dark. You can usually ID the two but the difference in barbs and wiskers and where they are located, also you can tell by the tail as there are 4 dif. species : M. poecilus (stripe towards end and spots on tail), M. iheringi (tail same color with black striped towards end), M. parahybae (tail starts with black goes to a small gap of orange then back to black), M. secundus (tail has only spots). If the tail is the same color as the fish and has a black stripe towards the end then its a south american. South Americans are usually the more common one to find in a lfs. You can pretty much put them with anything that isnt small and they will do fine just make sure they have a good dark hiding spot. I have a south american one myself full grown (2ish inches) and I keep him with my african tang cichlids and he does very well with them. I love this catfish very cool little guy, one of my fav. catfish. Some say that they can sting though if you pick them up wrong - not sure if thats true or not though as I never tried. Anyways hope that helps.