Salmontail catfish - Arius leptaspis

Contributed by: John S»1»

On: November 28, 2006, 9:07 am

I have had a few Salmontail Catfishs’ before and what I have to say is they are a very hardy fish. Make sure to have your aquarium sealed properly before purchasing one because if there is a way out, it will find it. Fortunatly they can survive quite a long time on the floor out of water. Additionally, Salmontails love to eat all your smaller fish. Just a warning. I had two that I bought as babies and they got to about 45cm long in a 60cm tank, and that was only in a 1 year period. I was feeding them feeder fish and they were very healthy but remember Salmontails GROW fast on lots of food. Just a hint for first timers:- If your Salmontail is very dark (even black) in colour, its healthy and doing well, but if its pale and light grey with virtually no colouration, your doing somthing wrong and its feeling very ill and could die. Best of luck!

Contributed by: tweetyfelix»1»

On: February 27, 2007, 7:43 pm

Hi, I have a new 4 ft tank with 6 Dino’s and have just added 2 Salmontails. One of the salmontails is dark in colour but the other has changed to a lighter grey/pale colour. I am worried something may be wrong. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can work out what’s going on. Tank is about 4 weeks old now.

Contributed by: admin»665»

On: February 28, 2007, 12:19 am

If they eat and swim like previously, there’s nothing to worry about. Fish may change their colours depending on water chemistry, lighting, substrate and more. Nearly all of my fish changed their colouration after I introduced them into my tanks. They live until now except only a few cases when they were sick before I put them into aquariums.