I'm in the early stages of raising some Amazon cats. Over the last few months I've grown a very healthy beautiful red tail, a true Piraiba, a tigrinus, a hybrid red tail/shovelnose and some other other stuff, but would really like a tiger shovelhead, with the sleek grey body and tiger stripes. I ordered on from world wide fish and pets, on their site it showed a tiny transluscent catfish with "tiger stripes and when I got it it was larger, darker, no stripers. Same thing with Predatory fins, same pic, same fish in the mail. Can anyone give feedback to the fish I'm looking for and/or if these fish will lighten up in color and develop stripes when they grow? Btw...all these fish will eventually wind up in a massive indoor pond dug into the ground in a green house. The only other fish I've bought since getting into catfish have been a handful of piranha. Thanks for any feedback guys. -MM
Tiger Shovelnose
- Thread starter catfizz
- Start date
Pics would def. help the cause… TSN juvies 3-6” are basically dark brown, white belly and a black stripe along the lateral line with some black spots. The coloration ur looking for will come in as it ages ?
some examples of pseudoplatystoma fasciatum juveniles.The most commonly available “tiger shovelnose” in the hobby.
Okay man.....I'm new at this...but something is not right. I am SURE there are people who know their Amazon Cats pretty well, and I have done copious amounts of drugs in my life, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I boldy state those pics above are NOT tiger shovelnose and what Worldwide Fish and Pets, Predatory Fins and BlueGrass Aquatics are selling are not true tiger shovelnose. Think I'm nuts? Those are the fish that all 3 sent me. Go look on the page of the latter two and tell me if they look anything like the fish they have advertised. I'll wait. Next....one of mine is now like 9 inches....still looks nothing like a tiger shovelnose....which are are very light grey with stripes, not dark brown with spots....much an archara shovelnose looks like. Hmmm. So.....gonna try it again. Found this rainforest guy in Indiana. I actually the order because I thought I was gonna get the same crap. Guy called me and guaranteed me they were all light grey with stripes down the side. They're all 3-4 inches.....all like the ones I got but they're all dark brown and mottled with spots. Pics below. We shall see.
Why not post the pictures of all your alleged TSN fish? That'd be decisive for us. The second, yellow photo features a TSN, no doubt.
From your worded description you might have a hybrid TSNxachara or TSNxRTC. Just a weak guess.
Rest assured the photos that Wednesday13 had posted above are all TSNs at baby stage.
From your worded description you might have a hybrid TSNxachara or TSNxRTC. Just a weak guess.
Rest assured the photos that Wednesday13 had posted above are all TSNs at baby stage.
No tiger shovelnose species will look like an adult until its infact an adult. That pic from RFI is of a 12”-14” fish. If thats ur fish pictured with the gar, thats 100% a tiger shovelnose. Looks to be 6” at best also. U need some better drugs my man ??…
The 3 sources u mention look to check out to me. Unless you provide pictures as
thebiggerthebetter
requested, we can’t really help you.
The 3 sources u mention look to check out to me. Unless you provide pictures as
thebiggerthebetter
requested, we can’t really help you. 
The fish from RTI are coming Thurs and I will def send a pic. I totally get that juvenile fish look nothing like adults. I just know that adult shovelnose are a light grey with thin stripes and these guys are a dark brown with spots, even the one that's 6". The fish from RTI are coming Thurs and if they look the same I will gladly eat my humble pie. These are the fish I am looking to grow and I don't see how this little guy is gonna get there but as I said there are guys that know more about Amazon cats than I do so I very very well may be wrong.
We are not telling you in theory but we are telling you from our experience having grown many TSNs from babies to adulthood. But seeing 1sthand is more convincing. Now that you have / will soon have TSN babies from 4 sources, you will see it in 1-2 years time, if you prove to be a decent keeper... and God willing. Their coloration pattern will be most heavily evolving until the 1-1.5ft size, and will continue evolving until 2.5-3ft.
My expectation is that they all, all 4, will end up looking the same more or less, that is the most common in the trade Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum species of TSN, as in your first photo in the last post.
There are multiple TSN species and they don't all look the same in terms of pattern but we exceedingly rarely see other species than fasciatum (or it may even be a hybrid of different TSN species) in our hobby... and moreover they are all of sub par genetic makeup, some more, some less, being either culls from SA farms or cheaply raised SE Asian fish for the ornamental fish trade.