Eight sun catfish, ~9"-11", 5-8 year old, in 4500 gal
- Thread starter thebiggerthebetter
- Start date
Never heard of this. I know they stick their spines out to choke larger fish, but I don't see a spotted or striped being able to do it to a caiman that's a pretty big throat lol. A wolf would probably try to tear them apart if they were to large, but if they aren't it could possibly slip them down. I watched a video of an aimara eating a similar sized gold wolf, took the whole stomach out, it was pretty interesting lol
I too find this surprising but there is plenty of what I don't know. Any supporting information, links, etc.?
Many catfish lock their pectoral and dorsal spines in response to an attack - bullheads, synodontis, Doradidae, wood catfish, walking catfish, etc. but they are still eaten by many predators of water, land, and air. I think the fish predators just need to be large enough and have the instinct on how to deal with spiny prey like that.
Bullheads are one of the favorite meals for flathead catfish. IDK how they deal with the spines but they eat a lot of them even without too great of a body size disparity, it appears. Maybe they break off the spines.
@necrocanis reported that his flathead fought with its tank mate catfish and broke off their spines easily. All the cats were under a foot or so.
Pulled out one cat yesterday, pretty much dead, I am assuming from overeating. Don't know what else it could be. Has been overeating for years though... and it eventually caught up with it. It turned out to be ~14" total length from snout tip to tail fork base. The round imprints and discoloration visible on the first photo are from it being stuck on an overflow screen for a while. Other than that, there is no damage on it.
Since it didn't sink but floated, I am guessing the vultures have not had a chance to surgically remove its stomach yet as they like to do to everything that falls to the bottom and doesn't swim.
Since it didn't sink but floated, I am guessing the vultures have not had a chance to surgically remove its stomach yet as they like to do to everything that falls to the bottom and doesn't swim.
Thanks, guys.
Yes this was one of the larger ones. There are a few more in the tank just about as large but it's hard to be exact. Given that this one was 14", those other ones should be about the same, which will make the rest who I thought were at ~9"-10" to actually be ~11"-12".
I am bad at "fine eyeballing" even though I drew size markers all around the perimeter of the viewing windows. I usually can tell a 6" difference
Yes this was one of the larger ones. There are a few more in the tank just about as large but it's hard to be exact. Given that this one was 14", those other ones should be about the same, which will make the rest who I thought were at ~9"-10" to actually be ~11"-12".
I am bad at "fine eyeballing" even though I drew size markers all around the perimeter of the viewing windows. I usually can tell a 6" difference
We lost another sun cat and also the largest, this one 15", and the fattest but this one sank instead of floating and it was at night instead of the day, so the vultures make some work out of it - ripped out the tummy and more:
(forgot to say that I cut open the prior sun cat and the huge tummy was 70% fat, 20% eggs (!), 10% intestines, or so roughly it looked to my quick glance. I didn't study it.)
(forgot to say that I cut open the prior sun cat and the huge tummy was 70% fat, 20% eggs (!), 10% intestines, or so roughly it looked to my quick glance. I didn't study it.)
Two years and one month later...
Another suncat is out, apparently of natural causes and again the vultures have done what the vultures do. This one was 17" tip to tip. I think we have 5 suncats left in the 4500 gal. They do grow through the years afterall, just slowly, so the 21" maximum total length from FishBase and PCF is believable to me.
Here is a video of the late suncat shot very shortly before its passing and the obligatory (warning: graphic) post-mortem shots:
Another suncat is out, apparently of natural causes and again the vultures have done what the vultures do. This one was 17" tip to tip. I think we have 5 suncats left in the 4500 gal. They do grow through the years afterall, just slowly, so the 21" maximum total length from FishBase and PCF is believable to me.
Here is a video of the late suncat shot very shortly before its passing and the obligatory (warning: graphic) post-mortem shots:
Minus one more of the old timers, large ones, Mr. Crooked Lip. Got 5 left in the 4500 gal, only one of the old timers; and one smaller one (~10") in the new 1800 gal with a strange, short posterior half, short caudal peduncle etc.
This guy too matched our prior personal record of 17"-18" at roughy 10 years of age.
As RD would put it, it didn't die from skinny disease.
This guy too matched our prior personal record of 17"-18" at roughy 10 years of age.
As RD would put it, it didn't die from skinny disease.
