Mountain Madtom

[rascalsweet]

I was reading the article on bull head and went to look at pics of them, long story short. I seen some pics of some madtoms. I copied some info I found:

"Identification: The Mountain Madtom has a stout body with a deep caudal peduncle. The body is brown or gray with dark mottling above and light below with no dark specks on the belly. There usually are 4 vague saddles; the 1st saddle begins at the dorsal spine. The fins have dark bands or mottling. The adipose fin is high and has an irregular dark band usually confined to the lower half. The caudal fin has a dark brown bar at the base and another near the clear edge. The pectoral spine is long with 6-10 large teeth on the rear edge and large teeth on the front edge. The caudal fin is straight and nearly free from the adipose fin. The anal fin has 12-16 rays. To 5 in. (13 cm) total length."

They are supposed to be the most common cat fish in south west Virgina, I'm not sure about TN, but considering it's the same Clinch river system, they should be good in numbers here. I'm guessing I know them as some other name.

Has anyone ever kept any? Thinking that They would be neat in a 55 gal. I read they live is faster water, thinking I could use a canister filter system to make a current? any other concerns I should have?

 

[Gearhead]

I had one in a 29ga for 3 years with multiple goldfish and 2 african clawed frogs. No current at all and grew to around 3in. Very peacefull and only came out at night. Sometimes i wouldnt see him for a month. He died yesterday.

 

[Noto]

Mountain madtoms are present in the Tennessee part of the Clinch. However, you should be very very careful collecting from that river. Several protected fish species occur there, including the pygmy and yellowfin madtoms, which are quite similar to the mountain madtom. I understand TWRA watches it closely.

I suggest you do one of the following:

Go collecting with a trained ichthyologist, perhaps even one of the TWRA crews.

Go collecting in a stream that does not have any endangered catfish populations.

Order a legally collected madtom from one of the sources below:
http://jonahsaquarium.com/JonahSite/fishlist.htm
http://www.aquaculturestore.com/fwverts.html#catfish

 

[Pomatomus]

I have kept a tadpole madtom in a 75g for about 4 years. You never see him unless you take the tank apart.

 

[WahooWillie]

If you don't mind traveling a bit. Head over to the French Broad (upstream of its confluence with the Pigeon). They are the only madtom present there, so you will not have any trouble with protected yellowfins there. They are failry abundant, but can be confused with tiny flatheads - so definately brush up on IDs. Target fast-flowing areas (~1ft deep) over cobble and/or vegatation.

Make great additions to an aquarium if you don't mind not seeing them often and don't have any small fishes.