This "Driftwood catfish" has been around the hobby for many years, and with a few other cats from other Genera, was one of the first uncommon catfish you could find in your LFS and would be the first member of the Auchenipteridae family that many catfish enthusiasts would encounter. I still remember fondly of finding them in a shop in the early eighties on one of my catfish hunting day trips and getting quite excited with my purchases. In these days of course this catfish was known as Auchenipterichthys thoracatus which we now know as a completely different fish altogether, they come from the waters of the Amazon River basin and the Araguaia River in the Tocantins basin while Auchenipterichthys thoracatus come from the upper Madeira River basin (see update below).

The "Midnight Catfish" received its common name due to its background colour of blue-grey with its vertical rows of tiny white specs adorning the foreground, hence the fish resembling the night sky. The other common name of the Zamora catfish stems from the catching locality around the Zamora region of Peru and is caught in fairly large numbers.

A tank setup for this species would entail a minimum size of 36x12x15ins (92x30x38cm) with plenty of hiding places with a temperature around the 23-25°c (73-77°f.) mark. Filtration could be by external or internal filters. You don't need to provide too strong a current in your aquarium as this would unnerve this secretive fish and also not too bright aquarium lighting would benefit this cat also. A parting shot here is the fish you would include with your "Midnight Catfish", try to keep away from small tetra-like fish as they will soon disappear at night and also aggressive fish such as the larger Cichlids which would harass this catfish and stop it getting any food.

Auchenipterichthys coracoideus has a very shark-like appearance with its black tip to the dorsal and when you do catch it out swimming it is very graceful, darting in and out of the tank decorations, and is well worth seeing for the first time. It can be quite a secretive fish, only coming out at lights out, but in time when it settles in to your aquarium you may start to see it on the odd occasion during the day looking for food, and even going to the surface of the water for any tit-bits.

To sex male from female is common to the Auchenipteridae family. Juveniles are hard to sex but as they mature the males develop a black hooked extension to the anal fin which resembles the gonopodium of Livebearers of the Goodiae family.

There is an other member of this genus, Auchenipterichthys longimanus which looks alike but sports black spots in place of the white of Auchenipterichthys coracoideus.