hey mfk, just picked up a small lima shovelnose , I chose the biggest one available he is around 3inches or more. he is in a 35 gallon with my 2 pictus cats. at the moment he is sitting vertical along my filter intake. is he just getting used to the tank or should I be worried? also what is the growth rate on these guys?
just picked up a small lima shovel nose
- Thread starter supergourami
- Start date
These do like to rest vertically - 3 inches is TINY! I've never seen one that small - photos?
Growth should be decent when small, but then slows way down. 18 inches is a big one.
Growth should be decent when small, but then slows way down. 18 inches is a big one.
That's what they do, hangout upside down. One of my Lima shovelnoses grew to 12 inches maybe more the first year and got really thick. I had my second one for about 5 months. Got him at about 3 inches he is now 6 inches not getting as thick as the other one. You don't have much time with him in your 35 gallon.
haha I hope he grows quickly as possible and I hope he gets some girth! he will be put into bigger and bigger tanks according to size then hopefully into a future pond.
I love my LSN!! I got mine at about 4 inches and he is now pushing 7 inches. They are ambush predators and the hang out vertically on sticks and the like trying to blend in while waiting for prey to swim by. I was happy that mine immediately started eating pellets and freeze dried bloodworms. Have fun growing a truly awesome fish!
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These are ambush predators that stay/float vertically, head down among vegetation pretending to be a twig or a plant and wait for a suitable prey to come by too close.
Young Sorubim species like the company of each other; adults don't care.
IME and IMO, chances are great that yours is S. elongatus, which tops out at 1', not 2' as S. lima does. They are quite hard to tell apart from the exterior features for laymen like us: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=30938&hilit=+elongatus (that's one of mine I was trying hard to ID)
I've never seen a 2' one in person, not even one longer than 11"-12" TL, while I have owned and seen scores of them. This leads me to believe that most/almost all we have in the US are elongatus. I have seen only 1 or 2 approximately two-footers on the photos originating from the USA here on MFK and a few in between 1' and 2'. Our colleagues in Europe say they see 2'-ers sometimes, not seldom.
IDK about Canada. Are there any Canadians with relevant experience here?
http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=697 offers kind of soft ID: "...Very generally, Sorubim with spots are usually S. elongatus. (TBTB edit: as opposed to the other 4 species in this genus; this appears mostly true IME with ~20 of these fish.) They are more of a black water species and, as with most such species, tend towards more variable, spotted patterning."
They need not live feedings, unless we are talking earth worms or ghost shrimp, lizards, land frogs, etc. They are small predators that snatch small fish (anything that can fit in their mouth which is relatively and surprisingly big for their slender body structure but not that big compared to other medium and large pimelodidae catfish), crustaceans, insects in the wild. I always feed mine frozen/thawed foods - small whole fishes, fish pieces, shrimp/prawn/etc. or their pieces if too large (do not peel; raw is better than cooked), and sea foods.
They can be trained to take pellets but the cases where they thrive on pellets are very few it appears to me, even on Hikari Mascivore pellets. I have never seen them fat and happy on pellets, rather always thin and slow-growing. Anyone, correct me, please, if your experience differs.
When small mine like freeze-dried and fresh bloodworms, plankton (mini-shrimp-like creatures), etc.
The growth on elongatus is not fast, perhaps 6"-7" in one year starting from ~3". As you see my experience with lima is most likely zero, so IDK how fast they grow. The fact that they reach 2x larger adult size may or may not matter.
Young Sorubim species like the company of each other; adults don't care.
IME and IMO, chances are great that yours is S. elongatus, which tops out at 1', not 2' as S. lima does. They are quite hard to tell apart from the exterior features for laymen like us: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=30938&hilit=+elongatus (that's one of mine I was trying hard to ID)
I've never seen a 2' one in person, not even one longer than 11"-12" TL, while I have owned and seen scores of them. This leads me to believe that most/almost all we have in the US are elongatus. I have seen only 1 or 2 approximately two-footers on the photos originating from the USA here on MFK and a few in between 1' and 2'. Our colleagues in Europe say they see 2'-ers sometimes, not seldom.
IDK about Canada. Are there any Canadians with relevant experience here?
http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=697 offers kind of soft ID: "...Very generally, Sorubim with spots are usually S. elongatus. (TBTB edit: as opposed to the other 4 species in this genus; this appears mostly true IME with ~20 of these fish.) They are more of a black water species and, as with most such species, tend towards more variable, spotted patterning."
They need not live feedings, unless we are talking earth worms or ghost shrimp, lizards, land frogs, etc. They are small predators that snatch small fish (anything that can fit in their mouth which is relatively and surprisingly big for their slender body structure but not that big compared to other medium and large pimelodidae catfish), crustaceans, insects in the wild. I always feed mine frozen/thawed foods - small whole fishes, fish pieces, shrimp/prawn/etc. or their pieces if too large (do not peel; raw is better than cooked), and sea foods.
They can be trained to take pellets but the cases where they thrive on pellets are very few it appears to me, even on Hikari Mascivore pellets. I have never seen them fat and happy on pellets, rather always thin and slow-growing. Anyone, correct me, please, if your experience differs.
When small mine like freeze-dried and fresh bloodworms, plankton (mini-shrimp-like creatures), etc.
The growth on elongatus is not fast, perhaps 6"-7" in one year starting from ~3". As you see my experience with lima is most likely zero, so IDK how fast they grow. The fact that they reach 2x larger adult size may or may not matter.
will posts pictures asap hes already cut up raw shrimp even though they had him on minnows at the store.!