Update on the three granulosus catfish, 1.5'-2', in 4500 gal:
Five 2.5'-3' nigers and three 10"-18" granulosus in 4500 gal
- Thread starter thebiggerthebetter
- Start date
Awesome fish, love the nigers. You want a 28 inch one? My wife saved him from a negligent owner of a lfs that let him get beat up by Oscars and was going to just let him die. She shamed him into giving him to us so we could try to save him. He was less than 2 inches long, we kept him alive and 6 months later he was 12 inches long. I'd love to find someone with a large tank who will give him a home. I've kept his feed down over the years to slow down his growth but he's just too big for my 240. Just let me know, I'd love for him to be with other nigers. Mr. Snuffalupagus 
has been without his own kind for too long.
has been without his own kind for too long.
Haha, great story, save, fish, and name! It shows they are a tough fish even at tender 2". I'd be happy to help you out but the distance is too great and shipping such fish would not be doable. If you wanted to bring it over (which is not technically hard, just time- and money-consuming), we'd surely take it in until finding him and 3-4 of our other nigers a forever home (unless we'd miraculously expand our holding capacity - these are fun and easy fish and totally worth keeping).
One year later.
The 5 nigers have been doing well and they keep growing, including Gee. They are all 3' or longer now and constitute the bulk of the entire 4500 gal stock.
I really need to adopt some of them out, 2 or 3, to lighten the bioload and make room for other fish. Anyone's interested in picking them up at a discounted adoption price?
The 3 Pterodoras granulosus have been growing too with the two smaller specimen reaching ~1.5' now... but sadly the biggest one unexpectedly fell victim to the bug I have had going around my tanks for the last half a year, perhaps some columnaris strain. The symptoms of great swelling have been observed with many other fish. The fish fought for a few weeks but in the end the granny was finished off in the hospital tank by septicemia, I assume from the redness.
The fish grew from 3" in Aug 2015 to 28" in Dec 2018, that is two feet in less than 3.5 years:
The 5 nigers have been doing well and they keep growing, including Gee. They are all 3' or longer now and constitute the bulk of the entire 4500 gal stock.
I really need to adopt some of them out, 2 or 3, to lighten the bioload and make room for other fish. Anyone's interested in picking them up at a discounted adoption price?
The 3 Pterodoras granulosus have been growing too with the two smaller specimen reaching ~1.5' now... but sadly the biggest one unexpectedly fell victim to the bug I have had going around my tanks for the last half a year, perhaps some columnaris strain. The symptoms of great swelling have been observed with many other fish. The fish fought for a few weeks but in the end the granny was finished off in the hospital tank by septicemia, I assume from the redness.
The fish grew from 3" in Aug 2015 to 28" in Dec 2018, that is two feet in less than 3.5 years:
Update. The 5 nigers have been doing well, they are all over 36" now, a couple might be close to 40", still vacuuming everything. Now that I have reduced the pellet amount I feed, they became more willing to take thawed marine baitfish too, not always but sometimes, especially Gee.
The two remaining grannies appear to have recovered from the bug that had taken out our biggest. They are roughly 18"-20" now, still a far cry from the 28" the biggest one reached. I think they are males and the biggest one was a female.
Here are two videos of the whole tank:
The two remaining grannies appear to have recovered from the bug that had taken out our biggest. They are roughly 18"-20" now, still a far cry from the 28" the biggest one reached. I think they are males and the biggest one was a female.
Here are two videos of the whole tank:
Yearly update.
June 2019 Rodrigo of Predatory Fins adopted three of our nigers, so we still have two others - I kept the Big G and the one I supposed was a male, the skinnier one. They both continue going strong and vacuuming anything that hits the bottom and even going up to the top when the feed is being thrown in. Both have grown past 3'.
Since I started giving the tank less pellets (switched from Zeigler to NLS), the nigers, especially the Big G do not look down on thawed fish anymore that they meet on their sweeping routes.
Can be seen here underwater, 5:20-6:00 minutes:
And here 0:00 to 5:50 minutes:
* * * * *
The two remaining Pterodoras have just been transferred to 1800 gal because they never swam in the 4500 gal, always, I mean always, for 5 years, sitting in the same spot more or less, and even during feeding they wouldn't leave the general vicinity. Hence, I concluded they were not all that comfortable in the 4500 gal, although they never had any damage on them, unlike the irwinies, plus their visibility was bad because of the spot they chose. Can see them here a bit and will film more later.
37:15 to 38:30 min:
Last footage in the 4500 gal, underwater, 6:10-6:55 minutes:
June 2019 Rodrigo of Predatory Fins adopted three of our nigers, so we still have two others - I kept the Big G and the one I supposed was a male, the skinnier one. They both continue going strong and vacuuming anything that hits the bottom and even going up to the top when the feed is being thrown in. Both have grown past 3'.
Since I started giving the tank less pellets (switched from Zeigler to NLS), the nigers, especially the Big G do not look down on thawed fish anymore that they meet on their sweeping routes.
Can be seen here underwater, 5:20-6:00 minutes:
And here 0:00 to 5:50 minutes:
* * * * *
The two remaining Pterodoras have just been transferred to 1800 gal because they never swam in the 4500 gal, always, I mean always, for 5 years, sitting in the same spot more or less, and even during feeding they wouldn't leave the general vicinity. Hence, I concluded they were not all that comfortable in the 4500 gal, although they never had any damage on them, unlike the irwinies, plus their visibility was bad because of the spot they chose. Can see them here a bit and will film more later.
37:15 to 38:30 min:
Last footage in the 4500 gal, underwater, 6:10-6:55 minutes:
The remaining two of the three grannies have adjusted well in their new 1800 gal, coming out to feedings with gusto. They look bigger than 18"-20" I have just eyeballed them at recently. Probably close(r) to 2'. But then the tank is smaller, haha... so this can be misleading.
And boy are they round!
Poor photography, the best I could do for now.
And boy are they round!
Poor photography, the best I could do for now.
