First update is about my parauchenoglanis ngamensis, AKA 'Ngame', for the back story see my last post from Nov. '20 titled "Losing my 'Dwarf' Giraffe Catfish" now on page 6 in this forum. This fish developed a swim bladder collapse months ago and wasn't able to stay upright for long on any given day. 
His tank was only 16" tall at the time but I noticed that if I filled the tank to almost overflowing it seemed to help a bit but would still have to flip him over on his belly a few times a day. My thought was that he might do better with a deeper tank. After searching I was only able to find one with the same footprint as my stand, 4" deeper, an acrylic one costing almost $300. So wtf, I ordered one for him anyway as I'm impressed with his strong will to live, despite his disability. Turns out they were backordered for months. After a month or so waiting I found the same in a used tank, w/stand & canopy in the 'Marketplace' on here, for half the money. After 3 hours on the road and some refurbishing, I set up his 'new' tank..
The more depth seems to help a lot! He will still flip over on his back, maybe once a day sometimes but he is also able to feed a little better too so it seems he was worth my troubles and expense to help him out - my 'buoyancy challenged' catfish!
Other fish, I recently re-measured my 16 year old c. fowleri, my O.G. cat (old girl) she gangsta too, she's now 18" long (TL) fat and happy, eating the few feeders I put in once and awhile but waits, belly up to the glass for me to hand feed her 5 big nightcrawler worms every other night..
My 3 auchenoglanis biscutatus are doing fine, thankfully not growing much, the largest now at around 9"
Another one of my critters has grown a bit too, the synodontis batensoda that now resides upside down in the upper part of it's tank, now @ 6"+, poor quality photo I know
Too many more fish to mention but as with the kind of cats I keep, rarely seen and no decent photos to show, if at all...
I was now faced with dilemma, jeez, now I have a 10th tank with Ngame's old 40G glass tank and a spare stand. Originally I was gonna advertise it for sale in the Marketplace forum and sell it. But then, as I often do, search for fish for sale from reputable sellers on the interwebs. Then I found it! OMG, advertised as a "Marble Jelly Catfish"
right in my wheelhouse, genus-batrochoglanis species, haven't seen one for sale anywhere since 2014 and bought that one then! Sadly lost him last year (Big Boy).I've kept a few batrochoglanis in the past and familiar with their vagaries and behaviors. I called up to enquire, he had two of 'em. First question was do they share the same tank? The reply was" yeah but with a divider, even then they're trying to kill each other". Typical pseudopimelodidae behavior as I've experienced. Second question was what are you feeding them as they are serious predators and often refuse anything but live fish, usually ex$pensive ones! He replied "market shrimp"! Way cool! Goldfish feeders have gotten more expensive lately, don't need that or associated risks involved. Anyway my response was SOLD! I then went shopping for the usual: filter, air pump, heater etc. etc. Much fiddling and fettling, moving a room around, setting things up, hauling water, testing, ad infinitum, got the PH down (hard water here) to 6.5, temp stabilized to 75, ready!
It arrived yesterday via FedEx overnight, healthy, frisky too as it tried several times to jump out of the acclimation bucket after 20 minutes! BTW size is 9" long TL. Took the following photos after 5 minutes in the tank. Later in the evening it was exploring it's new home. A few hours later I put in a small nightcrawler and 2 chunks of shrimp. Checked in an hour later- food offering gone!
Sweet! Here's pictures....
Can't say what species yet, may never know for sure with this rare fish, as this one is from Peru as with others I've kept and there is little to no data on batrochoglanis from there. My personal theory is that a few of the genera that exist in Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil may be endemic to Peru as well, just no info to be found as yet, or anytime soon.
Got this one from Steve @ Exotic Fish Shop, he may have one left... Cheers All
His tank was only 16" tall at the time but I noticed that if I filled the tank to almost overflowing it seemed to help a bit but would still have to flip him over on his belly a few times a day. My thought was that he might do better with a deeper tank. After searching I was only able to find one with the same footprint as my stand, 4" deeper, an acrylic one costing almost $300. So wtf, I ordered one for him anyway as I'm impressed with his strong will to live, despite his disability. Turns out they were backordered for months. After a month or so waiting I found the same in a used tank, w/stand & canopy in the 'Marketplace' on here, for half the money. After 3 hours on the road and some refurbishing, I set up his 'new' tank..The more depth seems to help a lot! He will still flip over on his back, maybe once a day sometimes but he is also able to feed a little better too so it seems he was worth my troubles and expense to help him out - my 'buoyancy challenged' catfish!
Other fish, I recently re-measured my 16 year old c. fowleri, my O.G. cat (old girl) she gangsta too, she's now 18" long (TL) fat and happy, eating the few feeders I put in once and awhile but waits, belly up to the glass for me to hand feed her 5 big nightcrawler worms every other night..
My 3 auchenoglanis biscutatus are doing fine, thankfully not growing much, the largest now at around 9"
Another one of my critters has grown a bit too, the synodontis batensoda that now resides upside down in the upper part of it's tank, now @ 6"+, poor quality photo I know
Too many more fish to mention but as with the kind of cats I keep, rarely seen and no decent photos to show, if at all...
I was now faced with dilemma, jeez, now I have a 10th tank with Ngame's old 40G glass tank and a spare stand. Originally I was gonna advertise it for sale in the Marketplace forum and sell it. But then, as I often do, search for fish for sale from reputable sellers on the interwebs. Then I found it! OMG, advertised as a "Marble Jelly Catfish"
right in my wheelhouse, genus-batrochoglanis species, haven't seen one for sale anywhere since 2014 and bought that one then! Sadly lost him last year (Big Boy).I've kept a few batrochoglanis in the past and familiar with their vagaries and behaviors. I called up to enquire, he had two of 'em. First question was do they share the same tank? The reply was" yeah but with a divider, even then they're trying to kill each other". Typical pseudopimelodidae behavior as I've experienced. Second question was what are you feeding them as they are serious predators and often refuse anything but live fish, usually ex$pensive ones! He replied "market shrimp"! Way cool! Goldfish feeders have gotten more expensive lately, don't need that or associated risks involved. Anyway my response was SOLD! I then went shopping for the usual: filter, air pump, heater etc. etc. Much fiddling and fettling, moving a room around, setting things up, hauling water, testing, ad infinitum, got the PH down (hard water here) to 6.5, temp stabilized to 75, ready!
It arrived yesterday via FedEx overnight, healthy, frisky too as it tried several times to jump out of the acclimation bucket after 20 minutes! BTW size is 9" long TL. Took the following photos after 5 minutes in the tank. Later in the evening it was exploring it's new home. A few hours later I put in a small nightcrawler and 2 chunks of shrimp. Checked in an hour later- food offering gone!
Sweet! Here's pictures....
Can't say what species yet, may never know for sure with this rare fish, as this one is from Peru as with others I've kept and there is little to no data on batrochoglanis from there. My personal theory is that a few of the genera that exist in Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil may be endemic to Peru as well, just no info to be found as yet, or anytime soon.
Got this one from Steve @ Exotic Fish Shop, he may have one left... Cheers All
