Rita id

[Xeno]

Hey,
I saw a bunch of those little fellas in a pet store a day ago.
They look like Rita but could anyone id the exact species?

 

[Fishman Dave]

Do look like Rita rita

 

[Xeno]

Hey,
So this genus is quite confusing to me.
A felloe hobbyist bought one a while ago and it won't grow past 16in.
What size can be expected with those fellas (possibly cb specimen. They are readily available at 15€ a piece)?

 

[Fishman Dave]

Quite a varied size range. If his is 16” then he has one of the big two, Rita rita or Rita sacerdotum both of which are supposed to reach 1.5 m or more. But I find it interesting that many are said to reach around the size your fellow hobbyist is encountering. I have never seen a large one in the flesh although finding smaller ones here in the UK is also VERY difficult. It may of course be that he has a type little known about.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Concur with every word in Dave's above post.

The largest Rita species max sizes are huge but we never seen anything like this at all. I for one have never seen such large sizes even on photos, let them be from captivity or wild. Balaji aka Shovelnose on Planet Catfish is a resident expert on Indian catfish. You can ask him.

This kind of reminds me of the African big-eye aka aluminum aka midnight aka Chrysichthys catfish genus - huge maxes but in captivity never see more than 1ft.