New cat in the house....

So this weekend A Place For Pets had their 8th anniversary sale and the 25% on fish will cost me dearly for the next few years.... LOL

I got a auchenoglanis sp. volta or as they are commonly know as a Giraffe Catfish. These guys get HUGE but are peaceful and do well in a community of larger fish. The ones from the 'volta' region are 'supposed' to stay smaller but we shall see. I hope to keep this cat for its lifetime in my 210g. Right now it is in my 56g growout until it is big enough to go into the big tank. This has been on my 'wish list' for a long time but due to how big they got I have always stayed away from these. Hope the 'volta' type stays under two feet, like they say....

Here it is:
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What really got me into these was how personable they can get: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Has to be the coolest video Ive seen.

Damn nice fish. I had one years ago when they first came into the trade. It grew to 3 feet before it choked on a 28 inch clownknife. best fish I ever had. I miss Jeff.
They love to sift the substrait for worms so if you ever drop some live black worms in they will find them. Also when they get bigger they love clams on the half shell. They suck the clam up and leave the shell behind in less than a second. Quite an awesome site to behold. Keep the water quality up. If the your PH drops too much they will release mucus all over the tank.

Thanks for the info. The little guy is pretty shy still but comes out for food.

An almost one month update:
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It is in the same hiding spot but now almost does not fit.

he is a really cool looking cat! im hoping he doubles in size next month

This fish is really neat DMD123. I like the update, its one reason I started a "personal blog" here on WFB. That way I can come back in a year or so- update, and have a photo record of fish and plant evolution in my tanks. I like watching other ppls updates as well. It allows me to sort of live vicariously through other ppls set ups. Like this fish you have, for a time I wished I could house 1 but never had the room. I hope you continue sharing

lloyd378 wrote:he is a really cool looking cat! im hoping he doubles in size next month

Me too, that way it could go into the big tank. I think it doubled in size already in less than a month. They are fast growers and this thing chows on NLS.

theChad wrote:I wished I could house 1 but never had the room. I hope you continue sharing

I hope to be able to house this fish for life but its kind of difficult to know if the 'volta' giraffe will stay a reasonable size or get huge. There is just not much info on this type and even sites like planetcatfish are just starting to get info on this species. I will try to keep this updated.

So I just put two and two together.... cat that likes to hide + food and camera = better pics! Well blury but at least you can see what it looks like.
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it does resemble a huge cory cat! super cool!

Had to give an update, here is "Snuffles" today: (almost one month later)
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He is getting big, cant even fit under the log like he used to. I plan on changing out my gravel in the 210g to Carib Sea Peace River sand at the end of the month. After seeing how he roots around in the sand, I wanted this behavior to continue in the big tank.

Thats a nice giraffe cat!

Thanks. He is still pretty shy, but he likes to eat. Cant wait to move him into the 210g.