My Planiceps Journal

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amazonfishman

amazonfishman

Polypterus
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Apr 7, 2005
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On the Rio Araguaia, I wish...
Well I figured I would try to do a little more legitimate research on this species this time around keeping them so I can hopefully be able to breed them one day with the help of the Dallas World Aquarium if I can get them onboard for this project.

Zoodiver, if you read this maybe you can help me out. Cliff I know you're on board for this project also if we can get those connections worked out and I look forward to any input you might have as well.

I've picked up 5 planiceps catfish this past week and have begun growing them out in one of my small tanks until they can be moved into a bigger tank with some of the other shovelnose. (Brachyplatystoma and Pseudoplatystoma species)

I plan on tracking their growth on a monthly basis, eating habits, diet, and the pH and temp of my tank that they are housed in at the time of the post. I have monitored growth rates of my previous planiceps and found roughly 3" a month up to 30" at least to be a normal growth for this species, this is just to further solidify that.

We do not know much about this species, about how high the wild population numbers are, their maturity age, typical diet, etc. They are harvested for food fish in Columbia I know but overall little research has been done on this species compared to say TSN catfish. There are few people in the hobby that have ever had the pleasure to keep one and even fewer that can claim to have kept one over 24" which is still a juvenile for this species.

I will attempt to update this thread weekly and if not at least bi weekly but will be collecting data more often then that. Here is a picture of some of them so that yall can get a good point of reference for the start of my research. They are roughly 2-2.5" at this time.

myplanicepsjan2011 4.JPG
 
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Week 1: I've had the fish since last Sunday and they are settling in fine. They fed within a few hours on some remaining feeder guppies I had and I also have them feeding on frozen blood worms and ghost shrimp if they choose to eat the shrimp.

Water Temp: 79
Nitrite: 0
pH: 6.6
o2: High, I don't have any real way to measure this but my filter is returning water about 2 " above the water line creating really good aeration and high dissolved o2 levels for the fish. I think this is very important for this species much like Tigrinus.

What I've found interesting thus far is that they are feeding exclusively at the surface or withing a couple inches of the surface of the tank on both the guppies and the blood worms. They prefer to stay just outside of the main current of the tank on the edges of the water flow and are voracious in their eating of the floating blood worms. I've also noticed that so far they seem to school still at this size and are often times swimming within an inch or two of the rest of the Planiceps in the tank. I can say so far that in the past week they have all put on close to .5" with the smallest maybe only putting on .3" overall length.

The smallest one I have is acting a little weird today and is spending it's time away from the others on the bottom of the tank near my Piraiba out of the current and does not seem to be feeding as well as the 4 are at the time. It is eating, just not with as much enthusiasm.
 
3" a month huh. I may have to pick one up from John if he still has them. Gl and keep us informed!
 
Small update, exactly one week after getting them I have lost the first...my damn Piraiba had the smallest planiceps in it's mouth when I checked my tank last night...I got him to release it but the damage was too great already :( I will have to move the Piraiba out of that tank or put up a divider for another week or so until the planiceps are large enough to not be considered food...both fish were around 2.5"
 
Hi amzonfish.

I'll watch this thread with much interest.
These are one of my favourite fish & Im very lucky in that I have 3 of them.
Had abit of a sh*t time of it off late with powercuts & what else have you but still have my Firewood shovelnose :headbang2

Like most catfish, the more hungry they bcome they more active they become. Mine too hang near the surface when hungry & will also now hand feed which is fantastic- they tend to shot forward & snatch it from my fingers.

Keep us updated
Rob
 
They are crazy when larger. The one I use to have would lay on bottom and you could see his eyes scanning the whole tank. As soon as I would drop shrimp in he would nail it on the surface of the water in an instant and send water flying everywhere. Because of the ferocity of it's feeding habits I never tried to feed him by hand. Very much the craziest fish I ever owned, but one of the most beautiful also. Introduction to my hybrid led to his death. The hybrid ripped his tail off. He grew from 10" to 26" in less than a year. Ferocious appetite for such a skinny fish. A true predator for sure.
 
Week 2: The Planiceps are growing...FAST! Just like I expected they have grown roughly 1" since they arrived in my tank and are feeding well on frozen blood worms and the occasional feeder rosy or guppy. At this stage I'm trying to get some size on them quickly so allowing them to have feeders but they will be converted back to shrimp/nightcrawlers/massivore after they get a little larger.

I'll try to get some pics up this weekend of them.
 
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