Catfish ID

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 5, 2012
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Ohio
At least I think it's a catfish. But saw these in a tank at the newport aquarium in Kentucky. Also, the paroon sharks were snagged off some guy trying to bring them into the US(which is illegal) and the Feds let this aquarium keep them.
The catfish I'm talking about is very thin. At first i thought ompock, but to thin and a strange mouth. There at the bottom of the paroon pic.


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ImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1344730394.849749.jpg
 
the scientific name of that catfish is Belodontichthys dinema or more commonly sold and known as the Dracula sheathfish
 
This cat is related to the Ompoks and does resemble them too. Belodontichthys and Ompok are genus in the Siluridae family. Now whether it is B. dinema or B. truncatus, I cannot tell.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/genus.php?genus_id=147#760

Anyway, both of these fish will grow to a good size of ~2'. IMO, the great difficulty lies in that these cannot be trained to take dead foods, only live.

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I didn't know paroons were illegal in the US. Is it a federal ban or a local one you are referring to? Can you point me towards the right document that describes the prohibition? On the other hand, that would explain why I've never seen a paroon for sale in the US, only in Canada.
 
thebiggerthebetter said:
This cat is related to the Ompoks and does resemble them too. Belodontichthys and Ompok are genus in the Siluridae family. Now whether it is B. dinema or B. truncatus, I cannot tell.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/genus.php?genus_id=147#760

Anyway, both of these fish will grow to a good size of ~2'. IMO, the great difficulty lies in that these cannot be trained to take dead foods, only live.

*********************

I didn't know paroons were illegal in the US. Is it a federal ban or a local one you are referring to? Can you point me towards the right document that describes the prohibition? On the other hand, that would explain why I've never seen a paroon for sale in the US, only in Canada.
Click to expand...

It's just illegal to import not to keep. I think it's an issue with the confusion of paroons and giant Mekong catfish. Same as the Asian aros. But since it's just a confusion issue you can still keep them just not import them into USA or take them over state lines. This is just what I've been told but I'll try to find documentation on it. Thanks for the info too.


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Paroons are completely legal, mekong giant catfish are not,I\m not sure if this is a cites issue or what. Shipments of paroons are occasionally confiscated on the suspision that they are mekongs.
 
pharmaecopia said:
Paroons are completely legal, mekong giant catfish are not,I\m not sure if this is a cites issue or what. Shipments of paroons are occasionally confiscated on the suspision that they are mekongs.
Click to expand...

Thats what I said in my last post. It's just illegal to import because of how similar they are to giant mekongs. That's why the aquarium got them, because they were confiscated from someone trying to bring them into the US


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