If you own one of these catfish you will know that feeding time can be a rather wet experience, even with tight fitting cover glasses, or in my case an open topped pond! I have lost count of the number of soakings that I have had over the years! I purchased my first Mother of Snails Catfish about twenty years or so ago. The first one that I owned was around 10” long SL (25cm) and very rapidly outgrew a 72” x 18”x 18” aquarium. I eventually purchased a larger aquarium 72” x 24” x 36” and went on to keep this fish for a number of years. When the fish died from a bacterial infection it was almost 28” in length, and would have required an even larger aquarium before too long. This was really the main reason behind the construction of the Tropical Pond, although at present I am not keeping any large catfish. The Mother of Snails Catfish belongs to the Family Doradidae, all of which originate from various locations throughout South America.

Sometimes literature refers to the doradids as “Talking Catfish” due to the fact that they can be heard to make audible noises, almost as if they are speaking to one another. There have been no records of these catfish having been successfully bred under aquarium conditions yet, which is probably just as well!