How large do tankmates have to be to live with...

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TheEelKing

Piranha
MFK Member
Feb 22, 2010
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Okay, I am looking at one of two catfish in the future. I want to know how large tankmates have to be in order to live with them and not get eaten.

1) Marbled Achara Catfish (grows 30+ inches)

2) Tigrinus Shovelnose Catfish (grows 2 feet)

So, again, how large do the fish have to be to live with them and what do you keep with these fish? I ask these questions with their adult size in mind as I want to know fish that can live with them long term.

These are the fish I'm looking at:

clown knife
black arowana (maybe)
fire eel
jumbo clown loaches
jade goby
Datnoids
severum
leopard ctenopoma
silver dollars

Will these make good tankates for either of the catfish on my list longterm? If not, what would you take out?

Assuming that I do get a catfish, I am not going to get one for a VERY long time. The fish on my list are my favorite fish and my current stock. I was thinking of maybe one day adding one of these two catfish to the mix IF it is not too big of a risk.
 
These should be fine.
clown knife
black arowana
Datnoids
severum(if 12+ inches)

Anything in the above size range that isn't eel like.
 
Marbled Achara Catfish- if by this you mean marble pim, then the size goes easily to 2' as well
 
severum would probably be in danger, fire eel is slender and therefore easy to swallow, you'd have to consider the silver dollars as possibly expendable in that tank
 
goby and ctenopoma won't stand a chance. the larger the tankmates the better. those cats have enormous mouth.
 
my achara's 29" at last measure a couple months ago. Trial and error with his "snaking" habits. He's currently been housed with for last 1 1/2 yrs+ a 15"+ algae eater, 5 5" tinfoil barbs, 2 4" pictus catfish, and 12" bala shark.

Based on my personal past experience with the fish you're looking at, I'd say no....but, trial and error. My old 8" flowerhorn took chunks out of my kitty, meanwhile Kitty fish went after my 9" oscar, and ate many fishes, many sizes, many temperments.

Good luck, awesome fish to have

On the other hand, I have at last measure a 12" achara x tsn hybrid in another tank. So tame, passive, maybe because I learned from the older, bigger achara that as long as I feed them several shrimp EVERY day, nobody goes missing....but, my hybrid has NEVER eaten anyone, including strange combo of small clown loaches, small cichlids, goldfish (long story), etc etc.

trial and error....their mouthes are MUCH bigger than they look...try to catch them "yawning"
 
aquaculture;4385994; said:
These should be fine.
clown knife
black arowana
Datnoids
severum(if 12+ inches)

Anything in the above size range that isn't eel like.
Click to expand...

The arowana is eel-like, right? Also, these answers are for both the marbled achara and the tigrinus?
 
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