smaller electric catfish species

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YOGI BEAR

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 26, 2013
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Scotland
Well scrolling through pages on the internet I found that some species of electric cats grow to around 8 inches and I wondered if anyone had kept them before? And also if I could get my hands on them if they would fit into a west African community? I'm not sure if they can stun other fish? Or also how big a fish they could eat? thanks for any help

Also would an elephantnose work with it due to them both being electric fish?
 
the LFS around me seem good with thier scientific names but based on the pictures i have seen they are very similar is there any way to idenify them?
 
There are 9 recognized species of Electric Catfish at this time. Finding Malapterurus microstoma (Dwarf Electric Catfish) is almost impossible, I've only seen 1 or 2 members ever that had them and I believe both were in Asia (SGP). The dwarf variety appears to have a more elongated/sloped head but other then that I don't know of any easily identifiable characteristics.

The commonly available specie is Malapterurus electricus and gets close to 3ft although I've not seen anyone with a captive one over 18" and even that size appears to be rare in captivity. I have a bunch of threads on MFK about my previous experience with them as far as food preference, aquascape, and tank mate compatibility which is VERY limited. The only confirmed fish that are immune to the shock are Synodontis specie catfish. I read that they could take it, tested the theory myself, and they survived just fine for the year or so I had my E-Cat. Other fish that were tested were killed the first night in the tank. I kept Synodontis Flavitaeniatus and Synodontis Multipunctatus.

Yes they can shock you. The shock grows in power with the size of the fish. At 12" mine had enough shock to make your arm go numb for a bit if it hit you hard. Yes they can stun/kill tank mates if they choose. I'd say putting in an Elephant nose which isn't a true electric fish but that has some electric feedback will end in a dead Elephant nose almost certainly because the E-Cat will probably fry it.

As far as food I never observed mine to eat live fish. I fed it frozen blood worms, market shrimp, live night crawlers, and beef heart on occasion.

For any more information outside of my old threads you might try the link below to Planet Catfish.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/family.php?family_id=16


~Trent
 
amazonfishman said:
There are 9 recognized species of Electric Catfish at this time. Finding Malapterurus microstoma (Dwarf Electric Catfish) is almost impossible, I've only seen 1 or 2 members ever that had them and I believe both were in Asia (SGP). The dwarf variety appears to have a more elongated/sloped head but other then that I don't know of any easily identifiable characteristics.

The commonly available specie is Malapterurus electricus and gets close to 3ft although I've not seen anyone with a captive one over 18" and even that size appears to be rare in captivity. I have a bunch of threads on MFK about my previous experience with them as far as food preference, aquascape, and tank mate compatibility which is VERY limited. The only confirmed fish that are immune to the shock are Synodontis specie catfish. I read that they could take it, tested the theory myself, and they survived just fine for the year or so I had my E-Cat. Other fish that were tested were killed the first night in the tank. I kept Synodontis Flavitaeniatus and Synodontis Multipunctatus.

Yes they can shock you. The shock grows in power with the size of the fish. At 12" mine had enough shock to make your arm go numb for a bit if it hit you hard. Yes they can stun/kill tank mates if they choose. I'd say putting in an Elephant nose which isn't a true electric fish but that has some electric feedback will end in a dead Elephant nose almost certainly because the E-Cat will probably fry it.

As far as food I never observed mine to eat live fish. I fed it frozen blood worms, market shrimp, live night crawlers, and beef heart on occasion.

For any more information outside of my old threads you might try the link below to Planet Catfish.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/family.php?family_id=16


~Trent
Click to expand...

Is this true that in captivity they don't reach near full size? feel like I have some pictures of large ones but have no idea if raised in captivity.
 
Hey Trent, I am pretty sure these catfish had been split into 19 species relatively recently but maybe it changed since. Nice info from you. Thanks much. The 19 are very hard to tell apart and my experience matches that of Houie and yours.

I too never understood if they can grow to say 2'-3' in captivity and even if they can, how often it happens. Seems like next to never.
 
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