# my new cat fish



## cam cap (Jun 22, 2007)

this is my new paroon shark hes about 4" at the moment but wont be for long lol and b4 any 1 says yes i now they get huge hope u like:2thumb:


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

that cat looks to be a big one!!!!:no1:


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## alpharoyals (Nov 21, 2007)

Awsome! shame there arent that "cute" when they are bigger :lol2:
Would prefer a red tail :thumb:


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## Berber King (Dec 29, 2007)

i wish shops wouldnt sell these fish-thats a Pangasius sanitswongi,you say you know it gets big-well around 95-100".Yes thats inches not cm and most public aquaria are too overstocked to take them in.Apologies if you are a millionaire with a 30ft tank in your living room!:whistling2:


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

Berber King said:


> i wish shops wouldnt sell these fish-thats a Pangasius sanitswongi,you say you know it gets big-well around 95-100".Yes thats inches not cm and most public aquaria are too overstocked to take them in.Apologies if you are a millionaire with a 30ft tank in your living room!:whistling2:


I agree. you are going to need a heated LAKE for one of these, I think it would be kinder to just euthanase it now. 

Unless of course, you are a millionaire and can afford a lake.

Minimum tank size is 32ft x 13.5ft x 13.5ft, which is 185787 litres, or 49080 gallons. Sorry to be annoying, but I just thought you'd like to know 










Have fun setting up a home for him


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## cam cap (Jun 22, 2007)

the pic you have put on is a Giant Mekong Catfish not a paroon shark they grow much larger and he will prob end up in a 12footx12foot diameter pond anyway


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

cam cap said:


> the pic you have put on is a Giant Mekong Catfish not a paroon shark they grow much larger and he will prob end up in a 12footx12foot diameter pond anyway


Actually, its a Pangasius gigas, a close relative to your Pangasius hypophthalmus, and it is very hard to tell the difference at the size yours is. Therefore you could have a fish that has the potential to get to 9ft. I dont think a 12ft pond will be big enough for it, do you?

Also, 12ft length is not long enough to house a Pangasius hypophthalmus, which is probably what you have.


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## cam cap (Jun 22, 2007)

thats in the wild you show me one that big in captivity


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

cam cap said:


> thats in the wild you show me one that big in captivity


Erm.. they should grow to the same in the wild as in captivity, if you re treating it right. :bash:


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## cam cap (Jun 22, 2007)

Esfa said:


> Erm.. they should grow to the same in the wild as in captivity, if you re treating it right. :bash:


 
i dident say i wan't going to treat it right and will more than likely take it back to the fish shop as they told me it would only grow to 18" was just saying show me 1 if u can


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## berber skink boy (Feb 9, 2008)

*nice*

nice fish m8:mf_dribble:


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

cam cap said:


> i dident say i wan't going to treat it right and will more than likely take it back to the fish shop as they told me it would only grow to 18" was just saying show me 1 if u can


more like 5ft, mate.

I dont know of anywhere that keeps these fish... a few big public aquariums might, but i dont have any pics.

Sorry if i came over a bit harsh.


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## cam cap (Jun 22, 2007)

Esfa said:


> Actually, its a Pangasius gigas, a close relative to your Pangasius hypophthalmus, and it is very hard to tell the difference at the size yours is. Therefore you could have a fish that has the potential to get to 9ft. I dont think a 12ft pond will be big enough for it, do you?
> 
> Also, 12ft length is not long enough to house a Pangasius hypophthalmus, which is probably what you have.


 
and a pangasius gigas is a Giant Mekong Catfish by the way (im not being funny or anything)


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

cam cap said:


> and a pangasius gigas is a Giant Mekong Catfish by the way (im not being funny or anything)


Aye, but common names can be funny... i could start selling a guppy as a "long tailed feather fish".

Like some places call clown loaches, clownfish. And then there is the marine clownfish. So it's always better to use latin names.

And i know this post sounds big-headed and pretentious, so i apologise. :lol2:


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## cam cap (Jun 22, 2007)

lol its ok its just when a shop tells you and reassures you that the fish will grow to about 18" and then every one has a go at you for buying one ill more than likely take it back and swap it for something a bit more manageable


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## Berber King (Dec 29, 2007)

Most dont reach those sizes at home because they damage themselves by bashing the glass,fatally ,as they are a nervous schooling fish.Dont think anyones trying to have a go,just letting you know what your in for.I would go straight back to your LFS and return it,they shouldnt be selling these sort of fish.


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## Berber King (Dec 29, 2007)

Sorry,just seen your post,good plan! Whoever "advised" you 18" should not be giving advice to people.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

Berber King said:


> Most dont reach those sizes at home because they damage themselves by bashing the glass,fatally ,as they are a nervous schooling fish.Dont think anyones trying to have a go,just letting you know what your in for.I would go straight back to your LFS and return it,they shouldnt be selling these sort of fish.


I would complain, but then again i complain at everything :lol2:

I complained about the silver arrowanas, the red tail cats, the peg sharks... oh yeah, and they were selling non-aquatic plants as aquatic plants. :lol2::lol2:


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## Jake89 (May 30, 2007)

cam cap said:


> this is my new *paroon shark* hes about 4" at the moment but wont be for long lol and b4 any 1 says yes i now they get huge hope u like:2thumb:


Isnt that a Pengasius Cat?


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

Jake89 said:


> Isnt that a Pengasius Cat?


Yup, it is.


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## fishboy (Aug 7, 2007)

Esfa said:


> I would complain, but then again i complain at everything :lol2:
> 
> I complained about the silver arrowanas, the red tail cats, the peg sharks... oh yeah, and they were selling non-aquatic plants as aquatic plants. :lol2::lol2:


 
just to let you know, it's probably best not to moan at the staff, but send a letter to head office instead (if it's a chain), or ask to speak to the manager or whoever does the fish orders. Chances are the staff you give an earful know that those fish shouldn't be there but have little to no say in what gets ordered as was the case when i ran the marine section in a big shop for a well know chain of aquatic shops, which is disliked by me and others for this very reason. getting in fish that grow to stupid sizes because they sell well. buying hard to keep species that 99% of the time die in captivity (heteractis magnifica/ritteri anemones goniopora sp. etc. for instance - as many times as i tried to get them to let me go to TMC to pick suitable and healthy animals, i was left behind to clean tanks while the boss took one of the hot part time girls there to try and impress them and they'd come back with all sorts of ridiculous bright coloured difficult to keep species that we just didn't have the system for) and buying non aquatic plants and selling them because they don't last and people come back and buy more. (although if we didn't get the non aquatic plants in noone ever bought any because they went to pets at home instead to buy the more pretty non aquatic ones lol)

working in a pet shop is a like fighting a losing battle agains't idiotic people who talk the talk to get where they are but don't have a f*****g clue about how to look after animals which is why i left. if anyone wants to hear me moan about this some more feel free to add me on msn :lol2:


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

thank you fishboy. and this is why I will never buy a fish from a certain few chains, mentioning no names *cough* maidenhead and petsathome *cough*. although where i work we have a similar problem, the boss won't get in anything too exotic, even easy to keep stuff like some rarer cichlids. because he doesn't want to dedicate tanks to stuff which is some shit new kind of guppy, but oh well, thats the beauty of actually decent aquatic shops, like Wharf, and wholesale tropicals.

anyways, nice pangasius. Like it's said above will get massive, the smallest of this family still get 3foot so you'll be looking for a monstrous tank soon enough and ideally you want a massive tropical pond so this fella can have some company as they are a shoaling species. Like you've seen Mekong catfish are also pangasius, although you won't have one of these, super rare fish they are. Over hunted due to the fact they are the worlds largest catfish.

anyways have fun with it. It's good to see people keeping proper fish. None of this neon tetra and guppy rubbish. hope you keep him anyway, you ever need to rehome him let me know, got a few friends who keep stuff like this


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## fishboy (Aug 7, 2007)

mike515 said:


> thank you fishboy. and this is why I will never buy a fish from a certain few chains, mentioning no names *cough* maidenhead and petsathome *cough*. although where i work we have a similar problem, the boss won't get in anything too exotic, even easy to keep stuff like some rarer cichlids. because he doesn't want to dedicate tanks to stuff which is some shit new kind of guppy, but oh well, thats the beauty of actually decent aquatic shops, like Wharf, and wholesale tropicals.
> 
> anyways, nice pangasius. Like it's said above will get massive, the smallest of this family still get 3foot so you'll be looking for a monstrous tank soon enough and ideally you want a massive tropical pond so this fella can have some company as they are a shoaling species. Like you've seen Mekong catfish are also pangasius, although you won't have one of these, super rare fish they are. Over hunted due to the fact they are the worlds largest catfish.
> 
> anyways have fun with it. It's good to see people keeping proper fish. None of this neon tetra and guppy rubbish. hope you keep him anyway, you ever need to rehome him let me know, got a few friends who keep stuff like this


 
hehe, i never mentioned maidenhead, :whistling2:


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## ern79 (Jul 26, 2007)

maidenheads actually have a list of black listed fish (tropical and marine) that are not kept in stock, either because they grow too large or are too difficult to maintain in captivity, if any of these fish are found instore it can actually get the manager in trouble so it is not likely that wholely unsuitable fish are kept in stock.
With reference to the fish you have, it has already been mentioned that it is pangasius sanitwongsi, this fish get enormous (approximately the same size as pangasius gigas). It is a lone living voracious predator. The advice you were given would probably cover pangasius sutchi/hypopthalmus which are nervous shoaling catfish. P. sanitwongsi are anything but nervous, they are highly active and highly predatory, the one i used to own got to 14" (very quickly) and used its tank mates to attain rapid growth, as soon as the tank lid was opened (to introduce new fish, to feed, etc) it would start circling the tank surface , dorsal out of the water just like a shark, i actually witnessed mine grab a 9" banded leporinus (itself a powerful swimmer) by the head and ram its tail repeatedly into the glass to force it down its throat, now thats one aggressive feeder!!!!
on a side note, the person selling it to you may have been under the impression that they were selling the smaller species and beeen completely unaware of what they were selling you, wholesalers and importers are not whiter than white and can often tuck something in under a different name and only those with sufficient knowledge know any different.


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## cam cap (Jun 22, 2007)

well hes gone now so on the look out for fish that get to about 2foot not 5-6 foot :lol2:


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## fishboy (Aug 7, 2007)

ern79 said:


> maidenheads actually have a list of black listed fish (tropical and marine) that are not kept in stock, either because they grow too large or are too difficult to maintain in captivity, if any of these fish are found instore it can actually get the manager in trouble so it is not likely that wholely unsuitable fish are kept in stock.


the fact that they have a list is the problem. It leaves anything that isn't on the list as fair game regardless of the staffs ability to look after that species or the equipment on hand to keep it alive. Giving a bunch of money grabbing idiots with no morals and a superiority complex (management and senior management in anywhere i've gone it seems) a list of banned species doesn't give them the ability to make informed decisions about things that aren't on it.


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

thats the problem with places like maidenhead. The knowledgeable staff (and they do pop up occaisionally) have no control over the stock because management want a quick turnover so they get these cool looking stuff in, charge large prices which stupid customers will pay and then the fish dies, guy comes back, manager says sorry nothing we can do blah blah blah, next week another batch comes in and the cycle starts again.

my local maidenhead has started getting stingray in and i swear the other day, the shop guy says, yeah they'll be fine in your tank (which was a rio 180litre tank with neons, guppys etc) and they'll just eat sinking catfish pellets. So i said to the bloke that was complete bollocks etc. and then the idiot customer still took it home.


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## ern79 (Jul 26, 2007)

mike515 said:


> thats the problem with places like maidenhead. The knowledgeable staff (and they do pop up occaisionally) have no control over the stock because management want a quick turnover so they get these cool looking stuff in, charge large prices which stupid customers will pay and then the fish dies, guy comes back, manager says sorry nothing we can do blah blah blah, next week another batch comes in and the cycle starts again.
> 
> my local maidenhead has started getting stingray in and i swear the other day, the shop guy says, yeah they'll be fine in your tank (which was a rio 180litre tank with neons, guppys etc) and they'll just eat sinking catfish pellets. So i said to the bloke that was complete bollocks etc. and then the idiot customer still took it home.


well as the most knowledgeable of my staff (and maidenhead branch manager) i find i am in the position of constantly having to explain to my staff that the "cool looking stuff" is not suitable for general sale. I spend the majority of my time (as do my staff under my guidance) explaining to people just why many of the fish we keep in stock are not suitable for them to keep, the customers are not necessarilly greatful for this advice and quite often i get a frosty reception for telling people that certain fish are just not for them. Quick turnover is not what im after, its happy customers, the last thing i want is someone coming back to me with some kind of beef, i want people to buy what they are capable of keeping and for them to have a good experience keeping it and to keep coming back for my advice and service. Im sorry if you have had bad experiences with maidenheads in your area but please dont tar us all with the same brush, i was a customer at my store for around 2 years before i started working there, and at the time was a fanatical hobbyist, i have been there for nearly seven years. I feel i have a good rapport with many of my regulars and that kind of relationship makes my job easy to do, i find nothing more stressful than having an unhappy customer and do my utmost to avoid this, hence the information i give is accurate and takes the aquarists capabilities into account, its the best scenario for me and for them. As for stingrays, i have had people put deposits on newly imported rays while i acclimatise them, i have actually had arguments with them because i will not release them into the customers care until im 100% confident that they are feeding WELL and solid, they were not able to understand why i would not let them take home the fish that they had put a deposit on. Again this is all down to the fact that i want long term happy customers, i could just take their money the day the fish came and tell them to take their own chances but thats in neither of our best interests.


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## fishboy (Aug 7, 2007)

ern79 said:


> well as the most knowledgeable of my staff (and maidenhead branch manager) i find i am in the position of constantly having to explain to my staff that the "cool looking stuff" is not suitable for general sale. I spend the majority of my time (as do my staff under my guidance) explaining to people just why many of the fish we keep in stock are not suitable for them to keep, the customers are not necessarilly greatful for this advice and quite often i get a frosty reception for telling people that certain fish are just not for them. Quick turnover is not what im after, its happy customers, the last thing i want is someone coming back to me with some kind of beef, i want people to buy what they are capable of keeping and for them to have a good experience keeping it and to keep coming back for my advice and service. Im sorry if you have had bad experiences with maidenheads in your area but please dont tar us all with the same brush, i was a customer at my store for around 2 years before i started working there, and at the time was a fanatical hobbyist, i have been there for nearly seven years. I feel i have a good rapport with many of my regulars and that kind of relationship makes my job easy to do, i find nothing more stressful than having an unhappy customer and do my utmost to avoid this, hence the information i give is accurate and takes the aquarists capabilities into account, its the best scenario for me and for them. As for stingrays, i have had people put deposits on newly imported rays while i acclimatise them, i have actually had arguments with them because i will not release them into the customers care until im 100% confident that they are feeding WELL and solid, they were not able to understand why i would not let them take home the fish that they had put a deposit on. Again this is all down to the fact that i want long term happy customers, i could just take their money the day the fish came and tell them to take their own chances but thats in neither of our best interests.


not saying there aren't any good maidenheads mate and i'm sure you run a good one : victory:. it is the staffs knowledge and attitude that makes a shop a good place or not, not the name. i've just had some bad experiences.......


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## Topbell (Feb 3, 2008)

A friend of mne bought one of these fast-growing fish a few years back. After about 3 years it was over 12 in long. The last i heard it had been realeased into thier smallish fish pond. A year later at 3 ft it had ate all the gold fish stock (at least twice). I think it eventually passed away one frosty night. Sad but these fish should not be sold.


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

yeah the odd decent maidenhead does exist its just I've been to quite a few now and never really had a good experience. There's one close to me I like to go in, and ask for some advice on something I keep and then listen to the horse**** thats come out of the shop guys mouth. Some of the stuff he comes up with is hilarious. The problem is he genuinely belives it and tells other customers the same. they had a pike cichlid in there. I knew it straight away to be a marmorata which is a fairly rare fish (hence why I bought it without a second thought). Marked up as Cichlasoma SP. So they had no idea what it was. So i go in there playing dumbass. what fish etc what does it eat (flake food apparently lol idiots) where is it from (somewhere in africa, again wrong). anyways we get to the till and he wants 30 quid for it (which anyway is a good price for a marmorata) but i play the whole, but you dont know what it is card. and got a nice female marmorata about 12inch for 10 quid and some free cichlid flake (which i binned but i thought was a nice gesture from them) . Once it was safely in the car i go back in and explain to them exactly what it was, where it is from etc and told them they just sold me an 80quid fish for a tenner. To which he says he needs to get the store manager. So out trots a friend of mine who used to work in a decent fish store. His face drops. We have a chat and he explains that the managers don't employ knowledgeable staff because they can get part time BandQ regects at half the pay.


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## ern79 (Jul 26, 2007)

i spend half my life in the search for quality knowledgeable staff, some of the c.v's that turn up when im looking for a solid full timer are hilarious, despite the fact that i put fish keeping knowledge essential, half of the mugs that apply have never even kept a fish but they are "good learners" people just dont realise, its not the kind of knowledge you can pick up in a couple of weeks, it takes years. I had one customer turn up with an abysmal water test, every thing was done wrong, and all her fish were dying, after a 20 min chat and putting her on the right path she turns to me and says "i see you have a job going, my son is looking for work" i turn to her and ask if her son has any thing to do with this particular tank of death and she tells me "yes, he helps out all the time" i was amazed that she even thought i would take a person like that on, thats the last sort i need giving my customers "advice"!


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