petshop hopping

saw some interesting fish this weekend while up and aboutand my kinda nice setup

 

lol know both pet shops exotic pets and loolilocks in good shops.

 

What catfish is that?

 

looks like what we could call the barbels we used to catch back in durban just a different colour

 

Cool looking fish.

Can someone do me a favor,if anyone is making a stop at Petmasters or lolilocks,can they check for me if they have stock on hatchet fish,Anubias (the aquatic kind,not the semi aquatic ones) and Christmas moss.

Also if anyone knows where to get dulled Leiklip/Slate rock.

 

was there saturday and didnt see any hatchetfish or anubias,they did have your geophagus though

 

Thanks,

Hopefully i can find stock somewhere,really want fish from the same area.

 

I hate to be the wet blanket here, but that fish is blacklisted, and for a very good reason.

You're right, it is very similar fish to the barbel you catch in the rivers here; it is in the same genus, Clarias. However, this one is Clarias batrachus, the Asian walking catfish. They can survive in nearly any environment, and are voracious predators. It has already caused problems in other parts of the world.

On another note, even if you are tempted to go ahead and buy one anyway, it's a rubbish fish to keep. They grow large, love jumping out fish tanks and will attempt to eat nearly any other fish in the same tank - even larger fish are prone to losing chunks of their bodies.

All in all, a bad news fish. Avoid and report if possible.

Regards,

 

ja not my kinda fish

 

i think they have it for about 3month now and its ugly! it first was in a tank with oscars and a jaguar all about 25cm.

 

i wouldnt say its ugly,just different maybe even interesting

 

They're selling them in CT as Marbled Asian Catfish. Most of the decent ones have been sold, in the 2 shops I've seen them in, but the remaining few have the most distorted bodies I've even seen in a live fish. Their spines are all twisted and some have serious humpbacks or multiple humps in some instances. There's some serious lack of culling happening wherever these guys came from. I'm sure culling off such mishapen fish is more human than having them struggle to move around with their deformities?

 

They sell in big numbers elsewhere... where they're not being sold as pets, they're being sold as food. These are likely run-offs from one of these trades, and the deformities slip through (although these may have arisen at sometime during growth - such as a small or crowded tank).

And who can blame them for being sold? Massively deformed fish, among them goldfish and parrot cichlids, are sold as 'unique' breeds. What is 'deformed' to the average fishkeeper these days?