The Puffer Forum

Has anyone ever kept Upside down catfish with DP's?

I have an upside down catfish (synodontis eupterus) in my main predator tank. They can be very territorial and grow very large (mine is 6-7 inches)

Not sure if they would be a great tank mate for DP's

I didn't think they got that big...thanks!

There are 4-6 Synonodontod catfish called upside-down cats. S. eupterus is one of the larger ones, but not the largest - the largest ic Brachysynodontis batensoda, which is the so-called giant inverting catfish. The smallest is S. nigroventris I believe. I would not co-house that fish with DPs either. That spercies needs to be in groups for security, although they do not often school (swim together), they still need others of their own kind for security and normal behavior.

HTH

There's also one more fish that is sold as upside-down catfish: Mystus leucophasis. It's very cute when small, but it grows up to a mean, nasty fish. It eats anything that's smaller than 3/4 of its length, and has a bad temper otherwise too. I've had one once, and it was bad, the only fish that I ever hated.

I had one of those Mysis leucophasis several years ago - grew to about 4" before I traded in during a house move.

At that time (ten years ago) it took me a while to find out what it was - I just thought that's a Bagrid = predator!

I've had my moments with big cats of the fish variety. Passed on to a friend a while back a 'marmalade cat', a Pimlodid that grew from one inch to fourteen inches in a year...

I still have the Clarius in my indoor 6 by 4 by 2 foot pacu vat. It's about ten inches and still accelerating.

Wonder if I could add a Fahaka?!

Fahakas do not belong with other fish in captivity. Nor really do Clarius cats.

Clarius cats are illegal now for us in the US, but I had one back when they were allowed. That was a good fish and one of the fish which hooked me o the large but not huge catfish. They are very graceful swimmers.

Clarius are not yet illegal in the UK, fortunately. Just quite rare - there was a full size pair for sale privately recently near me but I don't see them in the shops often. I would not have tried to aquire them due to territoriality issues with my animal.

Quite right, RTR - a Fahaka would quite probably tear my Clarius to pieces, given time.

The Clarius gets a good wiggle on at feeding time after lurking under bogwood or under the filter box. I'm sure it can sense me approach the vat via vibrations of my foot falls even on a concrete floor. It's doing well so far - possibly the fastest growing fish I've ever owned. I'm expecting an adult length of about twelve inches but if it gets larger than that then so much the better

It's cohabiting with a Pacu and some breeding paradise fish of all things.

I love Clarius catfish. I had a chance to get a marbled one for free but we ended up turning it down as the largest tank we had available was 50gal.

They are really graceful fish. My wife does not even like albinos (which mine was), but the Clarias was one of her favorites due to their grace in swimming. The albinos are pretty light-sensitive. You might try some floating plants if the light is strong enough. Mine originally summered out in a large ornamental pool and wintered indoors in a big tank. After the pool got vandalized once (despite a 6' fence), he was kept indoors year-round. We moved elsewhere. I gave up big pools, but kept the banana plants that egded one end. I still do bananas and other summer-only tropical plants outdoors, but no tropical fish outdoors any more.