Anybody had experience with FOSSIL CATFISH?

papastew · Member Joined: 03 Jul 2004 Posts: 44 Location: Milwaukee

Just curious if anybody else has had experience with fossil(stinging) catfish. It has a sting capable of killing a human and only gets to about 7" in length.

t_chelle16 · Moderator Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 3437

Never had them, but a little research tells me they get quite a bit bigger than 7". Looks more like 12" - 20" (so probably an average of about 16".

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/clariida/heteropn/134_F.PHP
http://www.scotcat.com/factsheets/h_fossilis.htm
http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=4885
http://www.aquariacentral.com/species/db.cgi?db=fresh&uid=default&ID=0089&view_records=View+Records

-Chelle

papastew · Member Joined: 03 Jul 2004 Posts: 44 Location: Milwaukee

ok. i've only seen a small handfull of sites that talked about them and they said that typically they don't exceed 10" in captivity but average only about 7-8". Although that was awhile ago and I have not looked into it for a while.

kc5gvn · Moderator Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 1147

Hi papastew, I've never had one but I have to agree with t_chelle. They probably get to 20" in nature. Larger fish in captivity generally don't reach their full size, so in an appropriate tank, probably about 16". The 7" or 8" length quoted is most likely due to not being raised in an appropriate sized tank or an over crowded tank and are stunted.

Fish Addict · Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 1:34 am Post subject:

i never even heard of them beofre this topic but they seem cool