Mekong Giant Catfish?

[BarbaraClark]

This is at least a decade and half from now, but one day I hope to own a 15,000+ gallon pond/tank. (I plan to make it somewhat an extension of my house with a viewing panel inside and one outside as well with a walk-in closet containing the filtration.)

I plan to stock it with Amazon River fish, such as an Arapaima Gigas or two, Red Tailed Catfish, Peacock Bass, Pacus... And other South American monster fish. Including MAYBE a Mekong Giant Catfish.

I'm having a lot of trouble finding info on keeping these guys captive...most articles I've read seem to warn off keeping them in a residential tank and claim they require a zoo or museum to house them. (Most articles say that about Arapaimas, too, but that doesn't stop Monster Fish Keepers.)

So, basically my question is, do any of you have a Mekong? In what size aquarium? Tell me as much as you can about your captive Mekong, pictures would be nice, too.

(Bonus question: I plan to build a 500 gallon tank sometime within the year. I can't use the search feature on my iPad very well, so if you have the time, please link me to any sort of information that may help me better understand how to make my own acrylic 500 gallon tank. I am a noob at DIY, and a GIRL, so...you get the picture. Lol.)


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[Oddball]

Aside from the fact that the Mekong Giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) is a protected species (the species is listed as one of the 10 most endangered species on the planet), it'll ruin your amazon motif because it's an asian species of catfish.

 

[BarbaraClark]

Ah, I knew they were in trouble, but I didn't know quite that bad.

 

[krichardson]

I agree with Oddball as I don't like to mix fish from different parts of the world....


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[thebiggerthebetter]

Your plans sound splendid.

After Amazon, Mekong is the second largest river in the world running through south-east Asia. The Mekong Giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) has not been able to breed properly in the wild for many years now due to electric station dams. Large specimen have pretty much all been fished out. Six-footers are now almost unheard of among local fisherman's catches. There is hope in that these fish are now captive-bred and farmed and are becoming available but very sparsely. It is unlikely your MGC would grow to champion sizes but even for an average adult of 7'-8' and 400 lbs, your 15,000 gal may be too small. The good thing is that it takes great many years for them to reach that size, albeit MGC is arguably the fastest-growing fish in the world from the baby size to about 3'-4'... in about 1-2 years.

Have you researched MGC or are asking because you have not?