Bullheads (Ameiurus)

[duper]

Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of buying a pair of yellow or brown bullheads and have a few questions. I'm living in Europe where they don't naturally occur, and since I know a lot of people on here are from the US I figured that at least some of you probably have experience with keeping them in aquariums.

1. Any big difference in keeping the brown and yellow bullhead?

2. How long have yours lived (in aquarium)? I mostly read around 5 years in average but have also seen 10+. This is one of my biggest concerns as I'd really like them to stick around for a while. Any notable difference in age between the brown and yellow?

3. I've seen many people having just one bullhead. Could it have a negative effect if kept completely alone without any other fish? They don't appear to be very social but still thought I would ask.

Thanks!

 

[tlindsey]

Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of buying a pair of yellow or brown bullheads and have a few questions. I'm living in Europe where they don't naturally occur, and since I know a lot of people on here are from the US I figured that at least some of you probably have experience with keeping them in aquariums.

1. Any big difference in keeping the brown and yellow bullhead?

2. How long have yours lived (in aquarium)? I mostly read around 5 years in average but have also seen 10+. This is one of my biggest concerns as I'd really like them to stick around for a while. Any notable difference in age between the brown and yellow?

3. I've seen many people having just one bullhead. Could it have a negative effect if kept completely alone without any other fish? They don't appear to be very social but still thought I would ask.

Thanks!

Welcome aboard
thebiggerthebetter
Fishman Dave

 

[Fishman Dave]

Being in the UK it's not a species I have kept for almost 25 years. Back then we didn't have a banned fish list, or rather, back then it was more common to catch fish from the wild and keep them at home.
The bullhead, if memory serves, gets confused here in the uk as a fish called the Miller's thumb, cottus gobio are also known as bullhead and they are now a protected conservation species in many parts of the uk. (Just goes to show how our rivers have declined in many places).
Albeit back 25 yrs ago I also kept brown bullhead in an outdoor garden pond so no real useful information other than they were available in pet shops to buy. I think that along with the wels and the channel cat, getting hold of one in UK is now like rocking horse poo.

 

[FLA]

Assuming we are talking about the Ameiurus catfish of North America. I have only really seen people keep the speckled bullheads. They make their way into the hobby via ghost shrimp collection. I believe browns get bigger than yellows. Based on live hauling for food they are very hardy I don't know when they die of old age, but I would imagine they last a long time. I have only eaten them I never tried keeping them.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

As far as I know there is really now major differences between either bullhead specie other then color. Both will reach upto 14in fully grown. And both will shoal with other bullheads. Both species are often confused for one another due to the brown bullhead having a slightly brighter colored belly like how the yellow bullhead has a yellow belly. As for other fish you could keep with em, that's a very small list. Bullheads tend to end up with the same basic design as a Amazon redtail cat and thus have the same extremely wide mouth, this wide mouth makes it easier for them to find food since they don't have to be so picky about the size of food they are eating but this wide mouth also prevents many fish from becoming tank mates just because anything small enough to not bother/attack it is small enough to eat. As for possible tank mates I would just recommend getting more bullhead or other catfish that get upto 1ft.

As for personal experiences with bullhead I can only really talk about the ones that I've caught. Never really kept any as pets so when it comes to their life span your guess is as good as mine. But yeah you should be able to house both yellow and brown bullheads in the same tank, I catch them both regularly from the same ponds in the same spots on the same day(s). I catch those 2 species along with the black bullhead as well which is also found regularly with browns and yellows.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Welcome!

1. Any big difference in keeping the brown and yellow bullhead?
***I'd not think so.

2. How long have yours lived (in aquarium)? I mostly read around 5 years in average but have also seen 10+. This is one of my biggest concerns as I'd really like them to stick around for a while. Any notable difference in age between the brown and yellow?
***I believe they should last at east 10 years but my personal record of keeping bullheads is terrible, I assume my water gets too warm for them, 86-90 F for half a year. I will provide links to my threads below.

3. I've seen many people having just one bullhead. Could it have a negative effect if kept completely alone without any other fish? They don't appear to be very social but still thought I would ask.
***They can be kept with plenty of tank mates, as you'd see from my threads but the dangers described above are real, so best to avoid tank mates that could fit in a bullhead's mouth. Also, two bullheads may be a gamble unless the tank is big enough and scaped enough for them to get away from each other; I believe that perhaps especially with yellow bullhead, more aggressive IME.

Our brown bullheads, northern and southern

Flashback from 2010-2011. Our first rescue southern brown bullhead, 14", in 4000 gal basement pond, 40'x6'x3', sorry about bad lighting. Of course, it couldn't last in there with all those large predatory tank mates, so we took it out in a few days. ... Back to 2018. Thought I'd start a...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Yellow bullhead at Fish Story

Got this amputee from Jeff Rapps as a freebie in Jan 2019 at roughly 2"-3". It seems to have reached 6"-8" today. The right pectoral fin has been missing almost completely apart from a small knob since at Jeff's (presumably removed by its kin in Jeff's tank but we can't be sure) and has never...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

A pair of spotted or snail bullheads - Ameiurus brunneus

Got a pair of Ameiurus brunneus - spotted bullheads or snail bullheads from Rapps earlier this year, in the spring 2017. $25 each. ~2". One was bigger, the other smaller, tiny. They appear to be rarely kept, I've never come across a report on MFK or PCF that I can recall. Also, their...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[duper]

Thanks for the replies guys! I appreciate it.