I used to work at a fish store during my college days back in the late 80's to early 90's (Fish Pros of Raleigh, NC). I was always on the lookout for 'oddball' fish that came with our regular shipments when one day I noticed 3 lil cats in a shipment of synodontis cats. Well I scooped them up and bought them paying the price of the fish they came in with, which was the usual routine (minus my store discount of 50%). Since they were only about 1.5 in. long, maybe even smaller, I put them in my 20 gal. plant tank with tetras and other small fish.
After a few weeks, they were growing and growing and knowing how they started to easily gulp up gravel and spit it out of their gill slits, I began to fear for my lil tetras lives. I moved them to my 38 gal. barb tank and they soon became my favorite cats I had ever owned.
In my experience, these cats did very well together in a group of 3. I never saw any bickering between them as I have read about, but that may be due to the fact that they had been together from such a small size. Their max size for me was about 6 in. before an accident happened one night caused by my puppy which dropped my tank level down to 3 in. of water (my tank was set on the floor temporarily in my new house and my puppy would nose the tank back and forth following the fish and she eventually caused a slow leak in the silicone of a corner over night that drained it down ><). I had to take all my fish over to my friend's tank till I could get a new 38 gal. set up. Well the new tank never came to pass since I already had one and my wife didn't see us dropping down the cash for a new one so I gave them to him. I think in his possesion they grew to maybe 7 in. the last time I saw them.
As for their rarity, I can safely say that I never saw them for sale before or since the time I found them as "oddballs". I did find them in a Catfish book I had bought and I had recently gone back to Fish Pros and talked to the new owner to see if he can find a pair for me. Thats when we found out that they now had a common name (Dwarf Giraffe Catfish) and he would order me a couple once his supplier has some (he was currently out and didn't know when they were gonna be getting more in though he had recently had some).
So congratulations on your great cats!! You will enjoy them.
