hi, all what’s a good tank size for a giraffe-nosed catfish (Auchenoglanis occidentalis)? I am building a 7*3 aquarium and was wondering if that would be suffecient for one specimen?
What’s a good tank size for this fish?
- Thread starter DRteugelsi
- Start date
It'd be borderline IMHO. Even the 8x4 too. These fish grow to be unbelievably robust and they do like to swim around.
I figured such... well any suggestions on cats other than Lima that are large but small enough to be happy in my tank lol
Suggestions trip me up 
We need to narrow the field. For instance hiding versus non-hiding, swimming versus sedentary, one big catfish versus a school / group of smaller fish, rare versus common, other tank mate compatibility, etc. Not to mention aesthetic requirements differ from person to person.
We need to narrow the field. For instance hiding versus non-hiding, swimming versus sedentary, one big catfish versus a school / group of smaller fish, rare versus common, other tank mate compatibility, etc. Not to mention aesthetic requirements differ from person to person.
Suggestions trip me up
Prefer non hiding
Swimming or sedentary doesn’t matter to me
One big catfish
Prefer it to be on the rare side
Tank mates will be larger polypterus species, and large mid-level fish (undecided on this as well), with some dithers.
And I don’t think I’ve seen a catfish that I think is ugly.
Brachyplatystoma capapretum. Kinda rare and slow growing fish or an albino channel catfish.
What about Megalodoras uranoscopus?
More of a driftwood kind of catfish. Doesn't move much but still an attractive catfish.
Prefer non hiding
Swimming or sedentary doesn’t matter to me
One big catfish
Prefer it to be on the rare side
Tank mates will be larger polypterus species, and large mid-level fish (undecided on this as well), with some dithers.
And I don’t think I’ve seen a catfish that I think is ugly.
With polys and other smaller tankmates, we can forget about large predatory catfish, such as Cephalosilurus apurensis, which I was going to suggest.
Yea, irwini catfish will take a long time to grow and swims slowly, so 7x3 might be ok for a long time. They tend to hide when small and also people complain they are more like pretty logs although we have seen some more active ones, such as the recent acquisition of
justarn
You may consider
-- bolt catfish,
-- vulture catfish (albeit the tank might be a bit too tight for a vulture),
-- smaller Auchenoglanis species (from Volta river, or Bouche sp; or A. senegalis),
-- a couple of Parauchenoglanis species grow to 1.5' and look most impressive (ask
Yellowcat
)-- smaller "oxydoras niger", such as a Centrodoras sp., ask
koltsixx
-- Hemibagrus nemurus,
-- a school of Pimelodus ornatus (I got 12, they look awesome together and are active),
-- a group of gulper cats
-- a group of Trachycorystes trachycorystes
-- larger plecos (if your tank is glass)
-- it sounds you are not fond of lima SN but a group looks great (I got eighteen 10"-12"-ers in 240 gal).
Is that enough to jump start your marbles?