)V(ONSTER Flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) grow out thread.

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Ok so saying I will put him in the hundred for better viewing until he is too big really can't happen anymore. lol. after fully removing the cover from the pond and not seeing the hiding flathead for months now I really underestimated him. Very much he cannot in good faith go back in the 100 gal unless I move all the fish in there to the pond when I do it lol. Fish is 15-16" long now. :) will upload some pics so you can see. Thick as my forearm as well. (I have thick forearms)
 
Ok so I can't really get him to cooperate with getting next to the bucket filter for comparison. lol. Best I can estimate is that it is 15". Looks to be roughly .5" longer than the bucket is tall. Sorry this was all done before cleaning the pond so the fish really stirred up a mess especially since they haven't seen light a few weeks lol. I haven't seen the flathead in months. Always hides in a pond liner flap. Well he is too big now lol. I saw him try though it's funny. Like a fat kid trying to get into a small fort. :WHOA: Anyway there is some amazing vids that I will be uploading to youtube. I am going to see if he will adjust to the light and eat on vid for me today also. :)


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Also from the looks of it the ID shark is roughly about 13.5" now. Looking very healthy and not shy at all. At least he is too big for the flathead to eat, but has taken some damage to the tail fin. The flathead could totally eat the suncats so they must go back in the 100 gal for now. Gonna see if the sperata grows fast enough over the next month or so to go in with the flathead. :) Very exciting. Could actually hit the 2' mark in the first year. So thick also. Craziness!!!
 
Ok since it is hard for me to demonstrate the size of this fish while it is in the pond I decided to use a prop lol. So this pic is of a flathead skull I prepared from a slightly larger flathead. This one measures 16" so one inch larger than the one in my tank. Should give a decent reference for size if it was to be held. Also doesn't seem very skittish at all when I am cleaning the pond and filming it up close. Enjoy vids are uploading as I type this. Can't wait til this one is truly monster sized! Will be awesome to watch it grow now that it can't hide as easy lol.

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Ok here's the vid to go with the pics. :)

[video=youtube;ShsW4LKUqJo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShsW4LKUqJo[/video]
 
You're not the only one. I actually thought this guy might grow slower and take a long time to get big, but sometimes things just turn out different lol. Like the ID shark in there. Had that thing for 2 years now I think, and it has only went from 2.5" to 13.5" in that time frame. I thought for sure it would be 2.5' by now lol. Been feeding it like crazy the whole time also. Flathead pond gets fed at least every other day. Been feeding, shrimp, sinking cichlid pellets, and algae disks. :) Coloration is crazy on this guy also.

cgibby said:
beast in the making right there i'm surprised how fast he's actually grown!


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Let's see had him since Dec. 2012. That's nearly 7 months or so. 8.5" to 15". So grown nearly an inch per month. :)
 
Ok so decided this one's name shall be Fluffy!
 
Fluffy is so wicked! By fary favourite amongst all your awesome fish.. :)
What are the long-term plans for him? Is he going outside or staying indoors?
 
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