I have an unidentifiable catfish...help please

[winkleGUY]

I currently have a 30 gallon tank with 5 rummynose tetras, 2 zebra botias, three dwarf gouramis of different colorations, two ghost catfish, and a male and female betta (surprisingly the male betta gets along with everyone no problem!). There is also a small yellow catfish in my tank and nobody knows what it is. It is about 2-3 inches long and it has a black spot right in the middle of its body directly below its dorsal fins behind its gills on both sides. It is fairly peaceful and has never bitten any fish but sometimes chases the botias. I've been to multiple pet stores and no one seems to know what it is. Also it was previously in a 55 gallon tank with african cichlids and it was in there for a few months so it probably won't get much bigger. This really isn't a problem but i would appreciate it if someone could help me out with it. Thanks!

 

[TankGirl]

Welcome to AA, winkleGUY!

Planetcatfish.com is an unbeatable resource for all things catfish, but it would be hard to sort through pics to find your fish. I'm sure someone is going to come along shortly with some help!

May I assume it is not a "suckermouth" catfish? I am guessing this is some type of Synodontis (notatus?).

 

[Toirtis]

Sounds like a zamora or sun cat to me.

 

[poppab02]

if it was in with african cichlids for an extended period of time and survived you can be about 90% sure it's a synodontis cat.

It sounds somewhat like a synodontis notatus, they can have usually between 0-3 spots

Synodontis grow fairly slow but most reach almost 12 inches and are nearly impossible to kill, which is why they do well with African Cichlids

here's a pic and there's a few at planetcatfish.com
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[rubysoho]

If it is a yellowish brown, with the spot you mentioned, then I am guessing it is a sun catfish, Horabagrus brachysoma. If this is correct, they are known to grow up to 18 inches (my lfs has two which I had been eyeing forever because I love the catfish species, but I simply cannot house them if they get that big!!!). I've done a good bit of research on them and that is what the majority of sites said. Now, I don't know if that is record size or if that is tank size because I have no experience with them. I do know that over the summer, the fish grew about 3 inches. They've slowed down for now at around 6 inches, but they will grow larger and anything that can get in their mouth will be eaten. Also, I have read that they live for a pretty long time. They are very peaceful fish (so long as the others aren't bite size) and need lots of hidding spots to feel secure. Hope this helps. Just google search the scientific name I listed above and you should be able to find pics and know if this is the fish you have. If so, they are awesome, but big!

 

[winkleGUY]

Thank you for your info!

I've gotten a few people telling me its a synodontis of some kind but i had a synodontis eruptus in the past and although its a catfish, mine doesn't really have the same build as a synodontis, the synodontis has a mouth on the bottom of its head whereas mine has a mouth in the front of its head. Really, it looks like a red tailed catfish because of the mouth and "whiskers" on its head.

 

[winkleGUY]

THANKS FOR CATFISH INFO!

I followed your instructions exactly and googled the scientific name. I found a picture of a young sun catfish and low and behold, there it is. I guess i have a sun catfish but i guess i should return him if they really grow to 18 inches. My 30 gallon is 36 inches long a little bigger than a foot deep so he'd probably have trouble living in it. Thank you for your help though!

-winkleGUY

 

[rubysoho]

yeh, unfortunatly they do get big, and I've heard they get big pretty quickly... maybe when I get my own place one day I'll get to have a HUGE tank (got some ideas brewing) but until then, I'm sticking to the smaller species (well... once I get my bigger tank I will, until then I'm just researching as much as I can )

 

[cowfish7]

Thanks for the info on the sun cats. I was unable to find any info on them, and now I know they will get way too big for my tank!

cowfish7