Marble Catfish/Achara Catfish

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I absolutely love those guys! they're beautiful. They are fast growers and normally very easy to feed. I have yet to have any attitude problems from them (don't have any now but I've kept them over the years) though like any other cat with a mouth, they will eat whatever they can.
 
I have a marble achara who is about 30 inches long, I have had him for about 3 plus years. He is in a 800g pond and eats hotdogs, shrimp, sinking and floating pellets. His name is Marv.
 
I randomly came across a little 2 inch marble and tossed him into my 75 gallon tank I just started because it was such an attractive fish with neat fins and a great pattern. It has a spot under a piece of drift wood and bullies all the fish who enter his space including some smaller multipuntatas but when it is free swimming it turns into a push over. Never had a probably with it eating from pellets to ghost shrink to krill and brine shrimp. The second I drop any food into the tank it's whiskers start moving around and it goes on the hunt. It's a pig so i have to watch how much i feed it but in the 2 weeks I have had it I would say it's probably doubled in size. Great catfish but because of its max size I will unfortunately have to get rid of it once it outgrows the tank unless I decide to buy a 200 gallon.

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Welcome to MFK!

It will grow very fast, reaching 1.5'-2' in one year.

If it helps, an adult at 2' will need an 8'x4' footprint at a bare minimum, that is around 500 gal at 2' depth. Or an 8' round pond would be nice. IMHO.
 
Welcome to MFK!

It will grow very fast, reaching 1.5'-2' in one year.

If it helps, an adult at 2' will need an 8'x4' footprint at a bare minimum, that is around 500 gal at 2' depth. Or an 8' round pond would be nice. IMHO.
Welcome to MFK!

It will grow very fast, reaching 1.5'-2' in one year.

If it helps, an adult at 2' will need an 8'x4' footprint at a bare minimum, that is around 500 gal at 2' depth. Or an 8' round pond would be nice. IMHO.

Wow really? It will grow that big that fast, geez. Well it will outgrow my 75 gallon in a few months which sucks because it's such a beautiful catfish.
 
It is a pretty cat. I cited average numbers that we as a community observe. YMMV.

The thing to keep in mind with these cats is that their maxillary barbels are unusually long, at 2' body length, they will span ~3.5'. As soon as the fish is able to touch front and back of the tank with both barbels, it will feel trapped, which will result in a flighty, stressed fish and regular wild darting around overturning and bumping everything in its path. Again, this is the usual. YMMV.
 
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