Pangasius Shark - Should I?

[eyebrowz]

Hi guys,

I'm new to the forum and only 3 months in to fish keeping, so was looking for a little help. I love the concept of keeping a shark, but until the day I can afford a 1000g+ tank or convince the Mrs that it's wise to convert the living room into an aquarium I'm stuck.... I've seen the below link for a company in the UK that sells Pangasius catfish.

http://www.tropicalfish-scotland.com/fish.cfm?pid=1021

I love the appearance of these things but have read mixed views on their size. You'll see from the description that it says it'll likely reach 15cm in a home aquarium. I'm not sure if there are various species and this happens to be a smaller variety but then again I thought it was also known as a Paroon shark until I realised this site sells them separately, so I'm showing my ignorance I guess! Bearing in mind my tank is 5ftx2ftx2ft and only 125g I don't want to end up with something I'll have to move on in 6 months time. Can anyone confirm if this is correct and this fish will reach only 6-7 inches? Or am I being lead up the path here?

 

[Chub_by]

The smallest pangasius species is supposed to grow only to a foot, but they are not in the aquarium trade. The commonly seen pangasius in the trade are Pangasius hypophthalmus, also called ID shark, which grows to 2-3 feet and p. Sanitswongsei( paroon shark) growing 3-5 feet. So you can forget those in a fish tank. Actually small bamboo sharks need about the same size tanks as pangasius
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[bottles]

These get massive and taste delicious. Expect them to reach 28"+ no problem.
Go for a bottlenose catfish (Ageneiosus marmoratus ). They look much similar, but mine seem to have maxed out around 12-14".

 

[eyebrowz]

Wow, thanks for the quick reply! Glad I didn't just go ahead and order - it seemed very strange that I've looked around for a while and never heard of 'sharks' this small. Maybe I'll give ordering from these guys a miss..... Thanks

 

[eyebrowz]

These get massive and taste delicious. Expect them to reach 28"+ no problem.
Go for a bottlenose catfish (Ageneiosus marmoratus ). They look much similar, but mine seem to have maxed out around 12-14".

Thanks for the advice, looking at a few images they do seem very attractive fish. I'll see what I can find over here!

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The pic is that of an IDS (iridescent shark), as pointed out above. It grows, by keepers reports, to 2' in about 1.5-2 years time and can hit 3' in many years thereon. They are known to reach up to 5' in the wild. They are called sharks by their common name - their appearance and the way they swim. Other than that, they have nothing to do with the marine sharks. They are very gentle and have no teeth. Please acquaint yourself with this small family of catfishes - all the names are clickable and lead you to pics and a datasheet for each fish - you will find this very useful: http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/family.php?family_id=21