You feed them well!!! Good job on the age and size.
Eight sun catfish, ~9"-11", 5-8 year old, in 4500 gal
- Thread starter thebiggerthebetter
- Start date
Thank you. They overfeed themselves. Can't control it in a community tank.
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The "short whiskers" (brachysoma) appear here and there around the video with some good showings:
Munis one more...
For 3-4 years the sun cats had lived in a 4500 gal but recently some of them started to get bitten by a tank mate or tank mates. It's been tolerable for a while until one night the sun cat with a remnant of the dorsal fin was bitten really bad. So out they went into the 1800 gal while the dorsal-less one went into a 240 gal to regrow skin and half the tail.
It spent about a month or more in that 240 gal and the skin healed up ok, but it wasn't enough time to grow back half the tail yet. Anyhow, it was not feeding in that 240 gal and looked kind of stressed, plus a far smaller yellow bullhead tank mate was bothering the sun cat a bit. So I decided to plop it in the 1800 gal to join its former crew.
That was a mistake. The fish couldn't handle this bit of more stress. Literally, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. The sun cat started to stiffen up and died for no good reason other than too much stress in a few hours in the 1800 gal, in the exact analogy to how we lost our last juruense catfish, everything was the same (see post #71, page 8 here https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/getting-my-jurs-off-live-guppies.514580/page-8 )
This dorsal-less sun cat I rescued from an LFS about 7 years ago at 5". So it was about 8 years old, and 17" if the tail was intact.
For 3-4 years the sun cats had lived in a 4500 gal but recently some of them started to get bitten by a tank mate or tank mates. It's been tolerable for a while until one night the sun cat with a remnant of the dorsal fin was bitten really bad. So out they went into the 1800 gal while the dorsal-less one went into a 240 gal to regrow skin and half the tail.
It spent about a month or more in that 240 gal and the skin healed up ok, but it wasn't enough time to grow back half the tail yet. Anyhow, it was not feeding in that 240 gal and looked kind of stressed, plus a far smaller yellow bullhead tank mate was bothering the sun cat a bit. So I decided to plop it in the 1800 gal to join its former crew.
That was a mistake. The fish couldn't handle this bit of more stress. Literally, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. The sun cat started to stiffen up and died for no good reason other than too much stress in a few hours in the 1800 gal, in the exact analogy to how we lost our last juruense catfish, everything was the same (see post #71, page 8 here https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/getting-my-jurs-off-live-guppies.514580/page-8 )
This dorsal-less sun cat I rescued from an LFS about 7 years ago at 5". So it was about 8 years old, and 17" if the tail was intact.
Minus one more. Seems more or less a natural passing. Perhaps overfeeding was a factor, as the last step in the process might have been bloating.
This one we rescued in 2015 at 5". This was the first one I had ever seen that was obviously deformed, almost a short body, with a shorter and misshapen rear half / caudal peduncle. Hence the smaller final size.
13". 7 years old.
It wasn't as fat before, as would appear in these pics, a lot of the girth is bloat or swelling that occurred in the final days.
This one we rescued in 2015 at 5". This was the first one I had ever seen that was obviously deformed, almost a short body, with a shorter and misshapen rear half / caudal peduncle. Hence the smaller final size.
13". 7 years old.
It wasn't as fat before, as would appear in these pics, a lot of the girth is bloat or swelling that occurred in the final days.
A couple of related threads:
13-14 years old (as of Feb 2022) https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=332613#p332613
www.monsterfishkeepers.com
13-14 years old (as of Feb 2022) https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=332613#p332613
How voracious are sun/eclipse catfish
I’m considering a trade for one about 14”. My concern is I have a kelberi and a bay snook about 7-8” and pim blochi about 6-7”. Think they’ll be ok or are these catfish eating machines?
www.monsterfishkeepers.com
In the beginning of Jun 2022, a few synos rasped quarter-size hole in 16" sun catfish, which tipped the scale and 5 synos, 3 eupterus and 2 hybrids, got kicked out and went to the jerk tank.
For 2 months the wound wouldn't heal and I didnt know why until I finally caught smaller Neolissochilus mahseer mouthing the wound. The mahseer left the 1800 gal and the large craterous wound skins over in 9 days!
For 2 months the wound wouldn't heal and I didnt know why until I finally caught smaller Neolissochilus mahseer mouthing the wound. The mahseer left the 1800 gal and the large craterous wound skins over in 9 days!
