catfish id

herman moorr

Piranha
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May 7, 2016
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Found this fish labeled as spotted shovelnose. To me it looks to be a hybrid of some sort. Not sure but either way I ordered him as they have 3 instock. Coloration looks too nice to pass up

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herman moorr

Piranha
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May 7, 2016
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Cool. Is 35.99 good for this fish at 4.5 in? Seller says they are not a hybrid but the head and achara catfish coloration stuck out to me. That's what I thought but always like others opinions on this site for ids
 
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Renegade Aquatics

Polypterus
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Jun 24, 2016
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Everett, WA
Well this this is for sure a hybrid, as for the price I'm not sure, I've never seen them for sale.
the thebiggerthebetter thebiggerthebetter will be able to tell you more than me, as he has probably kept these fish before. The only thing I know is they need a very wide tank so they don't feel claustrophobic as they have very long barbels that will touch they ends of the tank.
 

thebiggerthebetter

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herman moorr

Piranha
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May 7, 2016
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Thanks for that link..I see they do lose a lot of the coloration once they get some size. One thing I didn't see was much talk about the growth rate of these.Do you know if they grow fast like the achara or the shovelnose? Just hope they don't have the same growth as the redtail hybrids..they are ridiculous
 
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thebiggerthebetter

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Thanks for that link..I see they do lose a lot of the coloration once they get some size. One thing I didn't see was much talk about the growth rate of these.Do you know if they grow fast like the achara or the shovelnose? Just hope they don't have the same growth as the redtail hybrids..they are ridiculous
These are made for food in SA and grow very quickly, on par with the farmed RTC, TSN, and TSNxRTC. However, my current thinking is that we ~ exclusively get culls from all four productions:

-- RTC
-- TSN
-- TSNxRTC
-- TSNxLei

That is we get the waste from the farms - the runts and dinks that drew the short stick and received poor genetics. They used to be disposed of but now a portion of them found a new market in our trade.

Although there is a lot of scatter in the data reported by the MFK'ers and a plethora of other factors but in general these fish appear to

-- grow 2-3x slower
-- max out at 2x smaller sizes
-- live 2x-5x shorter
-- often possess structural defects

versus their wild kin and their properly-performing "keepers" at the farms.

*******************************************************************************************************************************

Anyhooo... sorry about the long and perhaps unsolicited intro but back to TSNxLei. I've grown 3-4 of them. On average 1'-1.5' in one year, 2' in 2 years. No more than 2.5' IME and that of others but my oldest is only ~5-6 years old and is 2'-2.5' currently, probably close to 28".
 
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thebiggerthebetter

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So he arrived this morning. So far I'm really liking the fish. Immediatly ate shrimp pellets

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Yup, they are awfully cute when small and yours is no exception. No visible structural defect I note so that's already an improvement over the ad photo.

Glad to see it has eaten so soon. You must be doing everything right by him/her!
 
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