It depends on where your catfish comes from. The closer you get to the equator the less light has
to do with spawing, and it has a definite effect on fish in the northern and southern hemispheres.
as you move away from the equator.
But I find many fish (but not all) lose their seasonal spawning ...

The best I can tell you is ,I have seen them live about 20 years in a spring fed lake, and they
were still going strong.

As far as total life span goes I could not even guess. Years ago while working with
Elasmobranchii (sharks) we discovered that there is no such thing as old age.Their cells ...

I totally agree with what the cat-elog and CotM says about R\T .

I guess the whole point has been lost. Maybe I am wrong . If so tell me and I will back off.
The way I look at this forum is, it is a teaching tool . Therefor if someone makes a statment
and no one has a counter or gives a reason ...

What really rang my bell so to say was " If they don't get 61 in.and 150 your tank is to small
and that is cruel"
That be the case someone needs to go threw the Cat-elog and the CotM and make some changes.

I realize that you donot have the luxury of working with large numbers of fish,but I was ...

Don't take me wrong ,I am not trying to go aginst any one here, or thier tank size suggestions .
I don't go to the extreams on sizes ,not all fish grow to world record size or there would be no
world records.
All I am asking is why give the size of a fish that is possibly the largest ever caught ...

You are right Humans are a bad example to compare aginst anything natural. But if you pick
any other living thing you will get the same results.

I can also see your point in saying prepare for the extreme. But you also have to take into
account that many of largest are not normal . Let me give ...

Once again I bring up the fact that not every one can expect to raise a record catfish .
If this is the case I would safely say that General-Shermans parents didnot do a very good job of
raising the poor guy because humans have grown to the height of 8 ft 11in. and 490 lbs.

If we are going to ...

P. pictus are migatory fish , swimming a great distance over a years migration . This is the reason
for their so called nervousness, the migration never stops.
At the peak of the up river migration (high water) is the spawning season. Much like their larger
cousins in the big river.
You will ...

Looking at the picture again ,I would think that the length of the dorsal spine(not real clear)
would be the main indicator for S. vanderwaali .

H. H. How did you determine this fish is S,vanderwaali and not S,woosnami ?
Looking at the picture I can not see enough to make a positive either way. What do you see I
don't ? Just curious...

H.H. Don't give up yet I can get you a job on a guppy farm if nothing else turns up.

I have allways heard this, but have found it to be untrue in my case.
I have a tank with 8 adult L. pictus ( females up to 28 in.) also in the same tank I have S. pleurops
S. eupterus,Chysichithys Sp.,H. brachysoma, Anciatrus, and small tetras. I even have a spawning
colony of S. barbatum in this ...

Both alcohol and CO2 are used to anesthetize fish .I have always used vodka if I could not get
grain alcohol. and prefer to inject it.rather than try to go the slow method.

If they were able to catch the fish bare handed I would think the fish wasn't in the best of health
to start with. As far ...

The problem with this fish and a few others is they are so hard to come by that it somethimes
takes a very long time to get enough to make a shipment. Most of the indians who collect fish
do not feed them while holding . Plus most shippers do not feed as it adds waste to the shipping
water ...

I think it was a Man made ,Bio engineered , Hybrid and at least one parent was a computer.

I have P. nigers, Mine reached 1meter in 6 years, they are no problem to maintain requiring
very little. However they do have one draw back, As they are not a very flexable fish they do
not maneuver very will .this combined with weight and power ,if spooked they can cause a
large amount of ...

Hopols are not hard to sex. If you do a comparison , looking at the underside, the female
has a much larger soft area between the plates, Plus the male has a( wingdingy) a very small
tube that you have to look very close to see.

There is no secret to spawning this fish. Stop the water changes, give them plenty of floating
thash , and feed lots of protein. The male will keep the nest going until the female is ready.

Don't worry about water quality as they don't do as well in clean fresh water,and they spawn
better in ...

When I said comerical bred corys, I am not refering to wild caught fish. I don't know of anyone
who is importing wild caught albino corys. And the breeding stock for the comerical bred fish
hasn't seen South America in 30 or 40 years. I doubt that they have seen soft water in the
last 20 + years ...

Comerically breed Albino and green cories will live and spawn in water with a Ph of 8+ .
This probably due to being bred in tanks for so many years.

There is no external differents between male and female limas that I have found .
I have found that all of my largest fish are females , but not all of the smaller ones are males.
It is fairly easy to tell a ripe female from a male by body shape, if you have sexually mature ripe
fish. But I ...

The cheap and simple way to solve this problem is to think live bait. They make all kinds of pumps
for water and air that run off 12 volts. It is easy to make a tranfer switch so the pump comes on
when the power goes off.

So with a 12 volt battery ,a small trickel charger, a pump, and a couple ...

When I said Arius eat salt,I ment they gorge on it to the point you can see the shape of the
salt pushing out aginst their extended bellies.
They also gather over the dissolveing salt and rub thier bodies aginst it until it is complestly gone.

Just am interesting observation on Arius seemani .
When Arius are imported they are always salted to help eliminate stress. What i have noticed
is that they eat the rock salt. I know this doesn't sound logical but it got to be one of my pet
things to do , watch their reaction to salt.

I could ...

When I pull up the Cat-elog I get a lot of Hen scratch on the left side of the screen.
All the fish are listed below this in blue lettering. Anyone have any idea whats going on?

This may be of no help to you at all , But in my learning to mass produce Ansistrus and Sturisoma ,I have found that I get the best results by putting my eggs in a styrofoam box
with about three inches of water and a little air. I try to wait as long as possible befor I take
the eggs from the male I ...

The only book I looked at was" Fish Medicine " By Michael K. Stoskopf.
We are more concerned with breaking the cycle than killing the bug.
I have been told Dylox 80 will kill the cysts, but I can not conferm it,
and will not suggest you use it with out proper knowledge of dosage,
as Dylox 80 ...

UP DATE I looked it up.

It is a neascus type of metacercariae belonging to the genus Neascus , A trematode commonly
called a Fluke

I believe what you have is bird worms,(common name). It is the larval stage of a digenetic fluke
parasite ,clinostomum or posthodiplostomum, not sure which at the moment. any way they are
part of a fish, bird , snail cycle. There fore the name "bird worms"

If the fish lives until the the ...

I have had plecos spawn the second year, I find it is more size than age.
As far as tank spawning it has been done on some of the larger plecos.
Most have been spawned in clay pipes.

If I were to try it ,I would a use length of PVC pipe 6 in. dia by 3 ft long ,4 ft.
if possible. The problem is ...