Cannot decide on a catfish.

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DRteugelsi

DRteugelsi

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Dec 25, 2016
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So I've been looking for a cat that grows to the 12-20 inch range that is easily obtained or easier to get my hands on then the ones I want. (My LFS really sucks. All 4 of them especially in the catfish department.) But I've looked at some giraffes, juruense, lima and various others. But I honestly feel like I'm stuck in a rut here. I really want something to be kind of like a centerpiece for my 300 gallon tank ( may go larger if I need to). But, I was hoping I could get some opinions and maybe even some places to buy them. I know theres someone out there who can help me fix my catfish dilemma.
 
How about a cat from the Ageneiosus family?! Interesting and is active.
 
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There are many online vendors with a very large selection of catfish that make LFS rather irrelevant ... but perhaps I am a bit dense, I am not grasping what the problem / task is. If you will, try explaining again, maybe what exactly are you looking for in a catfish?
 
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I'm looking for a medium sized that has at least some sort of personality I really like rtc's and tsn's but they get too large and I can't find anywhere that has giraffe catfish that doesn't charge over $45 for shipping. But basically I'm open to suggestions of what would be a "centerpiece" to my tank. (Don't really want to use the word centerpiece but it's the only word that describes what I'm trying to do.)
 
I would recommend against the giraffe for a 300 gallon tank. They're beautiful and have great personalities, but there's a lot of questions marks surrounding their taxonomy. The smallest variety seems to be "bouche," at least according to most people, but even they are supposed to get 18-20", but I have read many accounts of them getting larger, and they're pretty active, so a 20" giraffe in a 300 may be too big. And then there's the risk of your vendor misidentifying them and sending you a larger variety that can reach 3'. TBTB might have something to contribute on the topic, he's kept several varieties
 
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Could Vulture cat work?
What about hemibagrus nemurus?
Ornatus?
Suncat.
Aluminium cat.
Sounds like your gonna have to fork out the dollars to get a suitable fish, cool catfish are hard to find at the best of times.
 
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Here, check out my recent thread about a catfish for my 220. I think you'll find a lot of useful information in there.

As for recommendations though, first things that come to mind based on my recent research are a single vulture cat (~18") or a single bolt cat (~15"). Both of these do well as single specimens and are beautiful catfish. My reason for not choosing either of these for my tank was because they are fast and can cause problems with other bottom feeders and I have two fire eels. I decided that I want to go with 4-6 pimelodus ornatus for my tank. My fire eels are the "centerpiece" of my aquarium though. If the catfish was going to be, I would have made a different choice.
 
Also, if you are wanting a specific species, you will probably have to order it online and pay the money for shipping...unless you can get one of your LFS to order it in for you. The shipping is so expensive because they have to ship them overnight and usually set it up for an early am delivery. The fish can't just live for days in a regular 3-5 day ground shipping method. I have to ship stuff overnight for my job sometimes and it is expensive. I can tell you, these places are not making any money on the shipping charges.
 
Fish Tank Travis said:
Also, if you are wanting a specific species, you will probably have to order it online and pay the money for shipping...unless you can get one of your LFS to order it in for you. The shipping is so expensive because they have to ship them overnight and usually set it up for an early am delivery. The fish can't just live for days in a regular 3-5 day ground shipping method. I have to ship stuff overnight for my job sometimes and it is expensive. I can tell you, these places are not making any money on the shipping charges.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I completely understand shipping charges and everything. I just didn't want to have to pay for them and then also worry about the fish making it to my house alive
 
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