Eel cats! One of my most favorite species of catfish of all times! They are trully great. I currently have 3 adult specimens and can give you some basic information on them. Few things from the top of my head:
Eel catfish hauls from northern and central africa where they inhibit stagnant pools as well as small creeks. They are scavenger/hunters by nature with relatively poor eyesight (not much use for it in murky waters), and incredible sence of smell -- hence the prominent whiskers and tubular nostrils. Strangely, despite having nearly trophied eyes they locate food items much more efficiently than other fish from the same waters, such as bichirs. Eel cats also have very sensitive skin and a breathing apparatus that allows them to rely highly on atmospheric air
They get to 18" and possibly even to 20 under proper conditions. Fast growers. Mine grew to full size in just a bit over They are a year. They are completely non-aggressive and love company of conspecifics. In fact, I would strongly advise for getting multiple specimens if you have a chance. General demeanor of these guys can be best compared to cory cats -- GIANT cory cats! Just like cory, eelcats are always active, constantly searching for food and rising to the surface for air from time to time. They do require some type of shelters though, and will often become VERY skittsih if kept in completely barren and especially too small of tank. As a side note, getting skittish is not a pretty sight with these, as they will go throwing ther scaleless 1.5 foot bodies all over the tank with an incredible force - my heart drops each time I see this behavior and I can't help but to think they will injure themselves but this is a very tough fish and aside from a few cuts and scrapes there is no other damage.
In my exprience, eel catfish make excellent tankmates for smaller to mid-sized bichir species. They are active scavengers and require exact same water conditions. I keep mine in a 75G tank with 5 polypterus (3 senegals, palmas polli and ortnate), an african brown knife and a Syno Eupterus. PH is 6.5, and temperature is allowed to fluctuate between 79 and 82 degrees. There is some rock work, driftweeod and tall fake plants. All fish are fed a combination of FD Krill, sinking shrimp pellets and live black worms. I am however contemplating moving eel cats to a 125G tank because they look like with their high activity levels and rather robust size they could use the extra space. Here are a few pictures of my guys (note: one of them is a lighter variant (partially leucistic?) of the same species)
