Auchenoglanis occidentalis - Giraffe Catfish

[kdogg85]

I went to get a few snails for my sw tank and browsed around the fw section and seen one of these cats. I had a thought,"don't these fish get very big in size?" I finally seen the river monsters show, and seen some on a table that looked to be around the 10-20 lb range. I don't have the means to keep one, but what size of tank would have to be had to house one. The one in the store was about 12'' in length and very fat. I'm just curious to see what type of setup would work for these.

 

[Jason7894561230]

200 gal or more and that is for one that is probably not ful grown

 

[taylorodw]

Auchenoglanis occidentalis • Claroteidae • Cat-eLog • PlanetCatfish

Honestly you would probably need to go custom build for this one. It gets 3ft long, and assuming it's not very active you would then need over 500g if going by standard tank dimensions. That's less about water volume, and more about footprint.

If it's an active fish, prepare to dechlorinate your local swimming pool...

 

[kdogg85]

I wonder if you get fish up to a certain size, you go from tank size to territory size, acres of water instead of feet or gallons. I mean a 6ft blue cat would not be very happy in a tank 20ft long and 15ft wide and 15ft tall. They have miles of area they cover.

 

[BigJim]

I've seen recommendations of 300g minimum for a redtail. Figure the same for a giraffe. Personally, I think this is awfully small. Small pond would be the way to go.