He avoids the current all together and stopped eating because of it. I've actually removed the powerhead to see if he will start eating again.
And my Lica is really lazy and just hangs by the slackest part of my tank lol.
Goonch water flow discussion
- Thread starter Aw3s0m3
- Start date
And my Lica is really lazy and just hangs by the slackest part of my tank lol.
Damn! This raises a lot of questions now of why your indian seems to absolutely hate current. I was starting to believe that the Indians loved strong current whereas the SE Asian sp. seem to like slower but this changes everything. I'm starting to think that there are actually populations of the same species that live in different environments. Depending on where they are born, maybe if they're born and lived in calm waters, they live their entire lives in these waters and if they're born in rapids, they spend their lives in the rapids? Maybe this is why so many are being caught in calm waters. Hopefully more info will come up to what environments these guys are being caught in before they are sent over to us.
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It is quite weird though because he seemed to love the current when he was 4-5 inches but now he is about 10inch in length and doesn't seem to care for it any more.
That is interesting. My best guess is that it figured out that it doesn't need the current anymore to find food but this is just a guess. It still doesn't answer why it would suddenly stress it out to the point where it would stop feeding
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I have no idea why it would stop eating lol. Goonches are such complex fish to keep.
Seriously! By far the most complex I've ever dealt with out of any animal. Mostly cuz there's been such little amount of research done on them
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hmm very interesting theory, I look forward to seeing the progress made between all the Goonch owners and see what the data suggest, as more people chime in on this.
I've spearheaded a lot of the work on these fish and I feel I may have inadvertantly mislead people.
I've always told people to give them strong current, but I've never advocated making it so strong as to disallow calm resting areas. Even in my ATF writings, the diagram that I use specifically points out and creates slack areas for rest. Goonchs are the same IMO.
The large, wild fish are prime examples of this. The actively hunting fish that we see caught are generally either in the strong current or in a pool where the strong current discharges. Resting fish are commonly found in structure, particularly rocks, be it in current or not.
As for Liam's fish, I agree that it is likely representative of the LLG, Bagarius yarrelli; as opposed to the HLG, Bagarius bagarius. The LLG grows large and fast as well. It makes sense that it would, at least at times, not favor the current. The areas in which those are found tend to undergo seasonal flooding and vary from shallow, rapid rivers to deep, slack rivers. This seasonal change is probably a bit better of an explanation than my migration idea. Lica and rutilus fall into this category as well.
I've always supported the idea that the six species likely have very different needs. We in the hobby have been trying to treat everything in this genus as though it was either straight out of the Himalayas or to treat it as if they were the typical South American tropicals.
These guys are unique, rare and extremely specialized predators which are, in the finest traditions of specialized predators, very delicate animals who require very specific conditions to survive, let alone thrive. We in the hobby only have a vague idea of what they need. After all, what real reason do we have to expect that a fish from the foothills of the Himalayas would require the same conditions as one from the jungle swamp waters in Borneo?
I've been actively working on the Guide to the Care and Identification of Goonch Catfish (Bagarius) for two years now. I don't think I'm really any closer to publishing it now than I was when I started. Every question answered generates two more and I don't want to put my name to a half assed work.
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I've always told people to give them strong current, but I've never advocated making it so strong as to disallow calm resting areas. Even in my ATF writings, the diagram that I use specifically points out and creates slack areas for rest. Goonchs are the same IMO.
The large, wild fish are prime examples of this. The actively hunting fish that we see caught are generally either in the strong current or in a pool where the strong current discharges. Resting fish are commonly found in structure, particularly rocks, be it in current or not.
As for Liam's fish, I agree that it is likely representative of the LLG, Bagarius yarrelli; as opposed to the HLG, Bagarius bagarius. The LLG grows large and fast as well. It makes sense that it would, at least at times, not favor the current. The areas in which those are found tend to undergo seasonal flooding and vary from shallow, rapid rivers to deep, slack rivers. This seasonal change is probably a bit better of an explanation than my migration idea. Lica and rutilus fall into this category as well.
I've always supported the idea that the six species likely have very different needs. We in the hobby have been trying to treat everything in this genus as though it was either straight out of the Himalayas or to treat it as if they were the typical South American tropicals.
These guys are unique, rare and extremely specialized predators which are, in the finest traditions of specialized predators, very delicate animals who require very specific conditions to survive, let alone thrive. We in the hobby only have a vague idea of what they need. After all, what real reason do we have to expect that a fish from the foothills of the Himalayas would require the same conditions as one from the jungle swamp waters in Borneo?
I've been actively working on the Guide to the Care and Identification of Goonch Catfish (Bagarius) for two years now. I don't think I'm really any closer to publishing it now than I was when I started. Every question answered generates two more and I don't want to put my name to a half assed work.
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Imo...consistent water quality in general is alot more important than flow or powerheads. From my experience they do not like tap water what so ever. Aged water and proper pre-water filtration are def. Necessary to keep them alive and doing well. My first and only attempt so far was 4 goonch and they all lived for almost 2 years. Grew from 4" to 12-18" between the group. I housed them in a 3'x18" 65gal unheated and did waterchanges from my 1700gal pool because i was so afraid to kill them. Indirectly my use of cycled pond water for them worked to my benifit and they did most exellent for me. My biggest ate the smallest like a snack lol and i lost the remaining 3 when i moved them to a 180. The 180 had too much "clean" water in it and they perished within 2-3 weeks when i changed their enviorment. i 100% blame myself for not knowing better at the time. Ive since overhauled my entire fish room with auto drip systems, moving beds and far superior filtration and its all for the better. I also had true b. Bagarius HLG's so in theroy these were the hardest to keep alive. Ive been waiting for some real indian b. Bagarius ever since. Im not a fan of all these tai goonch on the market and other gimmicks lol...there only available because of the new demand these fish have. I miss the days where a couple specimen were available once a year or even every few yrs and they were all true indian b. Bagarius.....if you look back at goonch from 2004-2011 they look distinctly different from these new available tai goonch. Back to the point lol...all you guys keep buying more specimen after u kill them and u change nothing about ur husbandry. For the cost of a new goonch, equipment/tanks and other things could have been purchaced to better your situation of caring for the fish rather than just buying another one and crossing ur fingers. Egon's goonch was one of the most long lived on the forum and it thrived on an autodrip system. Thats proof enough that it takes certain measures to care for these guys. Id never try a goonch without an autodrip system again, too many factors that can go wrong resulting in a very quick death of ur goonch. Autodrips are not fool proof either but they provide a very consistent enviorment unlike we can do by manual waterchanges. Human error is the #1 cause of these fish dying. Has nothing to do with certain flow rates. I also believe these fish can easily be acclimated when small and that goes out the window as they grow. "Grow out" tanks are a bad idea, best to put them where they will stay permenantly for their lifetime to have a good chance of one thriving. Theres a few larger ones that people have moved so i may be wrong but thats just my theory. Autodrips or bust mfk! Lol...changed my life and entire outlook of the hobby.
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