tiger shovelnose catfish

[kentobizmol]

i went to dolphin pet village and saw a tiger shovelnose catfish around 8inches and it was very close to being completly black.
at first i thought it was some kind of plecco.
is this just a juvenile color form, or was it sick or is it a rare speciman?
since i want to get one that is more silver/bluish
like this one below.

courtesy of project amazonas inc.
http://www.projectamazonas.com/index.htm

oh and i saw a redtail catfish around 3inches and it had cloudy eyes, was it sick?

 

[T1KARMANN]

i would get the 400gal tank 1st before you get the TSN they grow very fast

 

[kentobizmol]

i think i'm going to start with begginer fish first.

 

[fishboy]

i had a small 4 inche tsn cat in a 30 gallon and moved him to my 200g , he was growing at about an inch or more a month and hes now 14" and 6 months old, a beautiful fish though if you have the room

 

[mon]

tats a nice tsn...

 

[Steve_89]

Nice tsn in the pic...

 

[taksan]

What you saw was likely not a Tiger Shovelnose catfish (ie: Pseudoplatystoma tigrinum or Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum) but rather a Brachyplatystoma juruense or possibly even a Brachyplatystoma platynemum both of which can look as you described.

i went to dolphin pet village and saw a tiger shovelnose catfish around 8inches and it was very close to being completly black.
at first i thought it was some kind of plecco.
is this just a juvenile color form, or was it sick or is it a rare speciman?
since i want to get one that is more silver/bluish
like this one below.

courtesy of project amazonas inc.
http://www.projectamazonas.com/index.htm

oh and i saw a redtail catfish around 3inches and it had cloudy eyes, was it sick?

 

[clare]

Red tail would be suffering some type of illness,cloudy eyes can be seen in some fish kept in alkaline water over a long period,but they would normally be sub adult or adults as it happens over a long period.It is often easy to feel sorry for ill looking fish but when you are ready dont buy anything unless in A1 condition and always try to see fish eating.

 

[freshwaterstingrays]

nice