Malapterurus electricus

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
my lfs has some tiny ones, about 2'', for $7 bucks. I just feed mine a giant slug i found while racking leaves. He attacked it ferociously and then spit it out along with a wad of slime but he ended up eating it anyway in the end.
 
Thanks;

They tend to get over zealous when food is present in the tank, my ecat goes berserk after its first bite and swims around in search of more food for over 30 minutes.

Yesterday I hand fed my for the first time, it made contact with my hands and at the localized area the fish delivered a sharp and pronounced shock! It felt like a giant needle went into my finger and made me grimace quite a bit. Maybe is the small area of electrical contact I made with the animal that caused such a interesting sensation; it was invariabley different from the usual shocks, which consists main of tingles.

Also when the ecat is seeking food, it will power dive into the fine gravel till its neck region and maintain that position for 2-3 secs, and then move off and continue its search. Just a unique observation.

Does anyone else have the same experiences?
 
Amazonfishman: You never had any problems mixing Synodontis Multipunctatus with the ecat? Did you notice any interspecies interactions or behavioral changes when you introduced the animals to each other? The only tank mate that stood its ground with my ecat was a 3 inche large mouth bass so far.
 
New photos showing mouth parts and growth: :)

ecat4.JPG


Really clear shots of the electroreceptors on the face and lateral line:

ecat5.JPG
 
Sorry it took me so long to respond again, I didn't notice any negative changes in the behavior of the e cat with the synodontis multipunctatus the e cat seemed to enjoy some company in the tank, they were around 3" at the time I added them to his tank. However the other synodontus were a little more territorial but overall little difference in the e cats behavior with their addition. I would recommend the multipunctatus to anyone with a e cat, they add some nice color to the tank and are pretty good at cleaning up the rest of the bottom of the tank ~Trent

I will be adding some other synodontis species to the next e cat setup in a 180 probably not the flavitaenatus like before but definately the multi's and possibly an upside down catfish or two and some other syno's as well
 
Very nice fish. I bought a little one just like yours from petland discounts. He's about 3 inches or so now and he eats alot. Very cool fish. I'm growing him out in a 15 gallon tank now until i can make a 4ft by 3ft by 18 inch tank for him. I may change the dimentions around though. But im pretty sure your 250 gal tank would be fine for him because these fish rarely grow to be 3ft in captivity. Both the dwarf electric catfish and this species stay around a foot or 2. Since they really dont move too much they dont need a very big tank.
 
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