28 replies to this topic

[scotcat]

Hi All,

Looking for a little help here with any information and/or pictures of catfish from the Australasian area. I hope to do a factsheet or two in the future and although I have a couple of books on Australian fish I am looking for a bit more info, like personal experiences in keeping them.

As far as I am aware there are only 2 families, Plotosidae and Ariidae that we are dealing with here.

Cheers.

[medaka]

hi allan
came across this while I was researching something else for the CSG

here

[scotcat]

Hi Adrian,

Yes I found the Australian museum site a while ago. Good resource. I asked them about the use of their pics but they couldn't give me permission as the pics are not theirs. So I will need to hunt down the holders of the picture copyrights to ask their permission.

[Bagrus dude]

The two best books for this sort of thing are "Austalian Native Fishes for Aquariums" by Leggett and Merrick, and "Australian Freshwater Fishes: Biology and Management" by Merrick and Schmida. Gerry Allen's field guide also contains some useful info.

[scotcat]

Thanks for that H.H.

I have a three books at present in "Freshwater fishes of Australia" by Gerald Allen and a couple of older ones "Fish and Fisheries of Australia by T.C.Roughley and an antique by the same author "Fishes of Australia and their Technology" which dates back to 1916, the colour plates in this book are just fantastic, not much on cats info though.

[Bagrus dude]

I have both the books. Is there something in particular you were looking for?

[scotcat]

It is more of experiences of keeping them, such as the members of the Neosilurus species i.e. ater, glencoensis etc. as I have only very few factsheets on these cats and I would like to compile a couple more in the next few months to cover this area.

Another problem of course is getting permission to use pictures of these species which I will be hopefully trying to do shortly.

[Bagrus dude]

The Leggett and Merrick book provides short notes on keeping the Australian cats, but these are limited to water conditions and temperament (although there is an interesting illustration of an egg cone for incubating ariid eggs for the mouthbrooding species). I had a copy of an article on maintaining Neosilurus ater (which appeared in FAMA), but I may have thrown that away in reorganizing my reprint library.

[scotcat]

Thanks for that anyway, I don't think the word reorganize applies to me as my library is a mess and I keep promising myself to get it organized before the wife throws some of it out

[Bagrus dude]

I found the article. Didn't throw it away after all.
I can run you a pdf if you're interested.

[scotcat]

Yes please, very interested, and thanks for your help.

[Kimbo]

you may also like to try the australian catfish and loach forums! you can find that at www.perthcichlid.com/forums and go down to the aus catfish and loach forum! im sure any questions you have will be answered!

[scotcat]

Thanks for that kimbo, will try that out.

[fatcatfish]

If you still need a hand with the tandanus I catch the things all the time. Usually just the small ones with a scoop net when I sweep val for feeder shrimp. Not worth much here.... well to me anyway as I can get them wholesale. But yea if you need some custom pictures I can catch ya a custom big one and take some clicks. They will be spawning in the creeks around here soon I think, so kids will be getting attacked if they go near the rock pile nests. heh heh, they got attitude hey. There is a creek about an hour from here that some years has a nest every 30 metres or so for about 400 metres. Have yet to raid a nest but always have wanted too...... just never had anyone to peer pressure me into it. heh heh
I noticed on the fact sheet it neglects to mention what you do if you get stabbed by the venomous spines...... that is of course you pour very hot water over the stab site. This cooks the venom protiens and de-natures them. Trick is to have water not hot enough to really burn you but hot enough to do the job so you don't have to start punching people out.
They do hurt and I like a good thermos of coffee with me at most times anyway. In a pinch a radiator can be ya kettle too...... not always that close to a doc meself. Same trick works for salmon tail cats, scats, bullrout, fortescue and striped sea cats.


Just noticed your from Dunoon....... thats the old name of the dam that I think feeds this creek. Now called Clarry Hall or something it surplies the town of Murwillumbah. You can see it from the top of mount warning in far north east NSW.

http://www.bigvolcan...es/murwillu.htm

river in the picture is downstream and hours drive from the creek, pretty polluted by then by run off from cane fields and septics.

Whats the go with shipping the things outta Oz?

[scotcat]

Hi fatcatfish,

First of all welcome to the SC forums and I hope you enjoy visiting.

Yes I would like very much to get some images of Tandanus, all very welcome
I will add your comments into the factsheet and it looks like you live in a nice part of the world.

I'm not too sure of the ins and outs of shipping cats out of Aussie but we did have an influx a couple of years ago with Tandanus and a couple of Neosilurus species also in one of our biggest outlets in the north of England but I haven't seen them since.

[fatcatfish]

Hi fatcatfish,

First of all welcome to the SC forums and I hope you enjoy visiting.

Yes I would like very much to get some images of Tandanus, all very welcome
I will add your comments into the factsheet and it looks like you live in a nice part of the world.

I'm not too sure of the ins and outs of shipping cats out of Aussie but we did have an influx a couple of years ago with Tandanus and a couple of Neosilurus species also in one of our biggest outlets in the north of England but I haven't seen them since.

Thanks for the welcome dude!
Yea shipping from/into oz is a bit of a nightmare for fish.
I work in a petshop and just have to cross the old fingers and look out of the odd 'contaminant' that slips thru.
Have a pretty solid week coming up with a takeover and shop move going down at work. But after that have a few trips planned into spots with lots of cattys. They are not a popular fish around here. I like them because I can catch them and put them in with Mangrove Jacks who will just kill and eat most catfish.
But yea if ya want some bio-type pics Happy to please...... just gotta remember to take the dig camera!!

[fatcatfish]

Rock and roll.
Got a few friends who have kids interested now.
Now just have to get everyone in the one place at once. These cats can get pretty big but I think they will look chunk next to a kid hey.
See how I go but should be able to get a cross section of the biotype for you peoples who want a local creek catfish tank.

molusc/crust/invert/fish/reptile/plant....... think I'll leave out the birds and monotremes.

[scotcat]

Looking forward to that

[fatcatfish]

Looking forward to that

Ok first mission wasn't so Successful. Caught 2 baby tandanus about 6cm long in elodea strands that had detached and were floating in chest deep water. Just used a scoop net. Have given them a worming and they are now swimming in an African cichlid tank.
The site I have selected to do this is a classic 'riffle' area. A sorta choke point that turns a larger creek into a bendy series of rapids with lots of narrow val. The slower wider areas have the larger adults.
Have not seen any nests but have not had much time to look.
Our first attempt to handline a big one was frustrated by eels. Fun to catch the big ones but they scare the crap out of everything else around when you pull them in.

My work is upgrading to a new building which will make me a little busy but another mission is in the works. Kids and big kids had a good time...... next time we bring home a good sized monster.

[scotcat]

Sounds an interesting time that you had. Thanks for the update