African Dwarf Catfish

[TorPeteO]

Hello everybody,

I bought a few new catfish from my LFS today, and I'm wondering if anyone can help me identify them. They were labelled as African dwarf catfish in the store, and the employee said they were a spiny species of catfish.

They look somewhat like a giraffe catfish, and also somewhat like this Amblydoras hancockii, at least in body type (not so much in colouration).

They are light and dark brown, in an inconsistent striping pattern. The LFS guy said they'd grow to a maximum length of 3.5", although I don't think they'd grow that big. Right now they're about 3/4" to an inch.

The lights in the tank are off now, I'm letting them get accustomed to their surroundings. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to offer a better description, if not a picture you can see. For now, though, any recommendations (especially with links!) would be greatly appreciated! I'm looking for information about the catfish, i.e. temperament, diet, personality, etc. Thanks again.

 

[SirMinion]

Could this be what's commonly called the Dwarf Giraffe catffish Anaspidoglanis macrostoma?
We have two of these fantastic fish called Thunderbolt and Lightning.

Enternaining little guys when they're eating, they're just so damn fast!

 

[TorPeteO]

They do look somewhat like those dwarf giraffe catfish, although the colouration is inverted; their body is predominantly a dark drown, with three vertical stripes of lighter brown (almost a cream colour). They're probably a very close species, since they seem nearly identical physiologically. Hopefully they're a much smaller species, though, since that reference you gave says they can grow to 8"!

In what tank, and with which tankmates, have you got your two housed, SirMinion? Also, what have you found they enjoy eating the most? Mine went nuts for a snail they swam across this morning, so that's good. I'm also thinking of trying bloodworm and I might throw a veggie wafer in there, as well, to see how that goes over.

 

[TorPeteO]

Well, I won't bother with the algae wafer, since they loved the bloodworm so much. I'm guessing they're not vegetarians, they haven't made any marks in the algae on the tank nor the plants inside.

Any more ideas on what species these could be? I'll try and find a digicam I can use, but for the time being a qualitative description will have to do...they're predominantly dark brown, with three vertical lighter brown stripes. They've no spotting to speak of, have two sets of barbels, two sets of anal fins (although I'm sure one of them has it's own name), a voracious appetite for bloodworm.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Fishy411]

maybe a mislabeled syno species although im not aware of any that small. although your store could be wrong. does this store have a good reputation?

 

[TorPeteO]

In the past, yes, they have been very reliable. It's a Big Al's, a respectable chain throughout most of Canada and, I believe, some of the United States. They seem to know a lot of what they are talking about, although they didn't have a scientific name labelled.