What's with the nose?

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oh wow, yours and mine are similar yet very different, I see what you mean. Mine has a very distinct flat head, even the top of the body on mine is flat...hmmm. I would post a pic, but don't want to hijack. I'm assuming that just cuz every fish is different in some way and it's okay. I"m not for sure whether sex has anything to do with it, although I know from the behavior of it and the rtc mine's housed with they are opposite, but don't know who's who...I don't have any suggestions for you other than yours is healthy and eating...and obviously thriving so all good. How big is yours btw? Mine's been in the 265g and the tail curves inward, which the tank is 24 inches wide...so the cat's around 29" right now...and 265g is not minimum for life, needs bigger obviously.
 
I may be way off here but when I saw the pic, I thought of a broken nose. These cats are special, not in the best of ways - their magnificent maxillary barbels span ~2x their body length. So even in a tank 2x wider than their length, they are capable of touching both front and back glass simultaneously. This causes panic - they feel trapped so they get nervous and flighty and often can freak out and run into walls, sometimes breaking their upper jaw/snout.

On the other hand, the body shape of the OP fish strikes me as odd. Would you plese provide a few more shots at various angles and especially a nice full side shot?

On the third hand :), IDK the exact difference between Leiarius marmoratus and Leiarius longibarbis. From tiny little that I know, they look very similar but again, cannot be very sure - these two have just been split up in two species.
 
I really have no idea but has anyone thought that it might be a defect due to the methods of captive breeding in south america? I've seen plenty of rtc with the same down turned mouth and I can't help but wonder. Same with clown loaches. It is well known that the fish(loaches) bred by hormone therapy often have "stumpy" looking faces and perhaps catfish are no different.
 
thebiggerthebetter said:
I may be way off here but when I saw the pic, I thought of a broken nose. These cats are special, not in the best of ways - their magnificent maxillary barbels span ~2x their body length. So even in a tank 2x wider than their length, they are capable of touching both front and back glass simultaneously. This causes panic - they feel trapped so they get nervous and flighty and often can freak out and run into walls, sometimes breaking their upper jaw/snout.

On the other hand, the body shape of the OP fish strikes me as odd. Would you plese provide a few more shots at various angles and especially a nice full side shot?

On the third hand :), IDK the exact difference between Leiarius marmoratus and Leiarius longibarbis. From tiny little that I know, they look very similar but again, cannot be very sure - these two have just been split up in two species.
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It kinda goes beyond the "broken nose" look tho-as I pointed out above in my post how even the body is flatter than mine on top. My achara's mouth has been rubbed raw the last week or two from it swimming and banging around, and I can actually hear it thumping upstairs against the glass as my other family members can too...has never done any damage other than thrown a glass lid off or had a red nose; not this "flat" look. Maybe over the weekend I will post a pic on here to compare.

Also, the 2 species you mentioned are very different, but most get them confused. Planet catfish is a good source to go to to help with this, as I also refer to myself.
 
Thanks. As I read in your first post, you said the top of YOUR fish is flat(ter). Anyhow, indeed, Ive seen the pics of acharas with flatter backs and more "humpy" like the OP fish is. IDK what determines it. If pressed hard for a guess, I'd say it is also from running into walls when young and damaging the spine. But this is baseless, and hence worthless, guessing.

I meant that the jupper jaw bone actually breaks.

Do you have/can you point out the assured longibarbis pics? Or do you have a copy of the article that split up the two? I don't think I ever saw a confirmed longibarbis pic. Necro was telling us a lot about the whole Leiarius genus which was revised by his friend Dr. John Lundberg: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...t-Perrunichthys-perruno!!!!&highlight=perruno
 
thebiggerthebetter said:
Thanks. As I read in your first post, you said the top of YOUR fish is flat(ter). Anyhow, indeed, Ive seen the pics of acharas with flatter backs and more "humpy" like the OP fish is. IDK what determines it. If pressed hard for a guess, I'd say it is also from running into walls when young and damaging the spine. But this is baseless, and hence worthless, guessing.

I meant that the jupper jaw bone actually breaks.

Do you have/can you point out the assured longibarbis pics? Or do you have a copy of the article that split up the two? I don't think I ever saw a confirmed longibarbis pic. Necro was telling us a lot about the whole Leiarius genus which was revised by his friend Dr. John Lundberg: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...t-Perrunichthys-perruno!!!!&highlight=perruno
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Well, I'm intentionally not trying to derail this thread by trying to distinguish the difference between these species, but from what I remember as it's been a couple years since I read up on it, and I may be wrong as I did not click on that article yet, but the one is most mistakenly for a perruno who every hobbyist believes they have, unless you count the rays in the top torsal fin (as I even did!), and other times people mistaken there's for a cat which is also different.

WIth the marmoratus the barbs are shorter, top dorsal fin's longer, marble coloring is different between the species as well if you read up on people talking about theirs as I remember years back their was a similar discussion that I joined in to...the body shape is different in some aspects, can't remember how and one is bigger by I think 2-3 inches than the other....with the longibarbis, the barbs are extremely long, the dorsal fins shorter and taller I believe, again, the markings are different (gold markings)...These two intertwined as two, but shouldn't be. I just call mine an achara. Again, it's been a long time since I read about them...

Aside from this, I do not believe there is a thread on here for just achara cat owners. I would love to start one, just for this reason to compare-to see how similar and different all of ours are.

When I read your comment regarding you didn't exactly know the difference between the two species, I *assumed* you were labeling the achara, or the Leiarius longibarbis you were indescretely calling it a sailfin catfish as I often see around my place as well...it's a tricky matter for some reason. You know what they say about *asssuming*? lol. That's what I meant they were very different....the achara's and sailfin's. My mistake. That's kind of where I distingiush between the type (mam or long).

But, back to the OP, I do agree that it's a question we wouldn't be able to answer as it's a guessing game. My cat's banged and thumped his face and nose so many times, rubbed raw, but never flattened or rounded off like so. As long as it's still eating and growing, shouldn't pose an issue. I just love this type of cat tho :-)
 
I suppose it could be a broken nose. It's about 20". I have had it for about than 8 months, so the nose was already this way when I bought it. It's in a 240gal right now, 24" wide. Here are more pics. ImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1359744804.130050.jpgImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1359744841.663008.jpgImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1359744864.963010.jpg


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