Malapterurus electricus
- Thread starter venwu225
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acid: Thanks for kind words
smiley: the animal shocked me several times during aquistion, and the sensation with direct skin to skin contact felt like numerous sharp needles poking inside my finger from the inside out, and it was enough to make me loose conscious control of the motor movements of my fingers that are in direct electrical contact with the fish.
I speculate that at a size of 2.5 inches, the ecat could stun and disable fish of equal or slightly greater size with ease, but perhaps not kill (unless skin to skin contact was made?)Still, I have no contextual evidence to back up this claim.
smiley: the animal shocked me several times during aquistion, and the sensation with direct skin to skin contact felt like numerous sharp needles poking inside my finger from the inside out, and it was enough to make me loose conscious control of the motor movements of my fingers that are in direct electrical contact with the fish.
I speculate that at a size of 2.5 inches, the ecat could stun and disable fish of equal or slightly greater size with ease, but perhaps not kill (unless skin to skin contact was made?)Still, I have no contextual evidence to back up this claim.
Nice pickup, unfortunately I just recently lost my 9" Electric Catfish, but they are amazing fish. I kept mine with 2 specie of Synodontis catfish in a 55. Where did you find a baby for $6 I've been desperately looking to get a few babies and start over, sweet fish! ~Trent
Sorry for your loss, thats a really nice specimen. Did you get the fish at a young age? It seems like a different species than M.electricus? Did it look similar to my when the animal was young? The dark coloration is striking.
FISH BASE Species List:
http://www.fishbase.org/identification/specieslist.cfm?famcode=143&areacode=
Also, whats your pH and feeding regimen like? I keep the pH at about 7.8 and feed small meals sparringly with earth worms, frozen fish, and the occasional flake.
I actually got the fish from a LFS, but I am no where near texas. And I the store does not ship, but I think these guys are in season now, so keep trying.
And could you be so kind as to post some photos of your microstoma? I would love to get my hands on some of those!
FISH BASE Species List:
http://www.fishbase.org/identification/specieslist.cfm?famcode=143&areacode=
Also, whats your pH and feeding regimen like? I keep the pH at about 7.8 and feed small meals sparringly with earth worms, frozen fish, and the occasional flake.
I actually got the fish from a LFS, but I am no where near texas. And I the store does not ship, but I think these guys are in season now, so keep trying.
And could you be so kind as to post some photos of your microstoma? I would love to get my hands on some of those!
Actually I picked my E cat up when it was around 7" it was growing fairly slowly about an 1" every 2 months or so and I had kept him for about 5 months. The lfs where I got him from has had babies in the past they were darker colored like mine however I've seen several pics of other baby E cats that were light brown or the same color as yours.
As far as feeding goes, I fed nightcrawlers every 2-3 days and usually about 3-4 at each feeding, my e cat also ate peeled shrimp on occasion, and tubiflex worms once that were meant for the synodontis, it ate the whole block!
Unfortunately I don't have a microstoma at this time, those are future tank plans and so when I get the 180 which is a little ways away probably 6 months or so I am going to try to get one. Amiidae on arofanatics.com had a beautiful specimen and thats what led me to want a Dwarf E Cat as well as the normal E cat. Just search the gallery for some other pics but I'll post a pic of his and some of the other color varients I've seen in baby E cats. Its good to finally see a few more people keeping E cats, I think they are one of the most amazing species of catfish and are personally my favorite catfish. Amiidae told me he got his Dwarf E Cat at a lfs in Singapore where he lives for about $15 US so I might look into ordering one that way through him or that lfs if possible.
The pics are in order, a baby Dwarf Electric Cat, baby E Cat, Peck's baby E Cat, and Amiidae's Dwarf Electric Catfish ~Trent
As far as feeding goes, I fed nightcrawlers every 2-3 days and usually about 3-4 at each feeding, my e cat also ate peeled shrimp on occasion, and tubiflex worms once that were meant for the synodontis, it ate the whole block!
Unfortunately I don't have a microstoma at this time, those are future tank plans and so when I get the 180 which is a little ways away probably 6 months or so I am going to try to get one. Amiidae on arofanatics.com had a beautiful specimen and thats what led me to want a Dwarf E Cat as well as the normal E cat. Just search the gallery for some other pics but I'll post a pic of his and some of the other color varients I've seen in baby E cats. Its good to finally see a few more people keeping E cats, I think they are one of the most amazing species of catfish and are personally my favorite catfish. Amiidae told me he got his Dwarf E Cat at a lfs in Singapore where he lives for about $15 US so I might look into ordering one that way through him or that lfs if possible.
The pics are in order, a baby Dwarf Electric Cat, baby E Cat, Peck's baby E Cat, and Amiidae's Dwarf Electric Catfish ~Trent
These are some pics of the setup I had for my E cat, sorry it was mid water change, the second pic is one of his tank mates a Synodontis Multipunctatus. I never got shocked by my E cat, I would put my hand in the tank to move the driftwood and feed them all and my E cat was very tame and would swim up really really close like within an inch and stay just out of reach of touching me. He was also kinda crazy and would play with the bubbles the aerator gave off all the time and swam back and forth through them. They are a very people friendly and very responsive to feeding and their owners. ~Trent
