Have you encountered cases of gulper catfish cannibalism?

[thebiggerthebetter]

What have you experienced?
What have you read / heard?
This is the first time I hear of gulper eating a gulper. Do you believe the poster or not?

 

[phreeflow]

Have no reason not to believe the poster; however, I’ve seen tons of gulpers kept together in importer tanks on several occasions and never witnessed or heard of them eating each other. That’s a first for me too

 

[jjohnwm]

Perhaps this case...like most cases...is one where the correct response contains terms like "usually" or "as a general rule" or "typically" or other admittedly vague or mealy-mouthed descriptors. There are very few absolutes in nature; I almost said "no absolutes" but thought better of it.

What's the minimum size tank to be used for fish species ABC? It's XXX gallons...but in some cases, with proper maintenance, you can get away with smaller, or perhaps need larger for exceptionally large specimens.

Will this fish and that fish live together without aggression? Yes...unless one or the other or both are unusually aggressive individuals of their species...in which case the answer is no...

Can Gulpers be kept together without cannibalism? Yes...generally...apparently...but there are always exceptions to every rule, so perhaps its best to expect the odd one in this case as well.

 

[esoxlucius]

I have my doubts regarding this particular cannibalistic incident for a number of reasons.

For one, anything you read on this subject, including some older MFK threads, usually have answers such as, "never seen it" or "never heard of it happening" or "I've seen them kept as multiples without issues" etc etc, nothing to actually suggest that it's a regular occurrence when these guys are kept together.

And two, if somebody claims to have done something unusual on MFK we usually have the, "pictures or it never happened" answers. Now this guy has actual video footage so you'd think it was a slam dunk. But footage of what!! This guy has patiently filmed footage of the two fish together, but completely missed the money shot!! Hard to believe. And that bloated stomach could be down to another feeding, not necessarily the other gulper!

And some of his commentary, to me, is a little jokey. Is he to be taken completely seriously?

All that said, as John mentioned, there are always exceptions. I'm just not too sure in this particular case.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

PCF sister thread: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=338828#p338828

 

[esoxlucius]

I've done a bit of digging on this guy, he really is some piece of work. He goes by the name of "fish with tony moustache". He has several unsavoury videos on you tube, I haven't been through them all but the general gist is that he puts fish together to see who wins!!!

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

My UK peer Aaron Fiddy from YT, on whose behalf I had asked the title question, after all combined his 6" and 4" gulpers and reports that all is well. He had tried it before and freaked out when the bigger quickly started mouthing the smaller and rushed to rip the smaller out of the mouth of the bigger (I had told him before though that I didn't expect this to proceed beyond the mouthing). For the 2nd recombine Aaron has mustered his strength and so far it's worked out.