Catfish, 'CHLOE the Claris'

My 15 inch 'pieball' claris catfish living happily in her bow-front aquarium. Shes a real pet, feeding from the hand and loves to be stroked and now plays football

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Aquatic
• catfish
• claris
• fish
• fishtank
• aquarium
• tank-busters
• pet

[christhedaddy]

I bought Chloe as a 4 inch youngster around 3 years ago, £6 at the local garden centre, I had been looking for another since loosing my first one in 2002, Many of the big aquatic outlets refuse to stock or import 'tank busters' so I felt lucky to find this one. In the time I have had Chloe she has grown from the 4in tiddler to a little over 18in now. I agree with your comment about being more like an eel, no scales and smooth to the touch. As you can see I'm hooked on them.

[jimmysherriff]

Aha! someone who owns one of those strange looking catfish!

My nearest aquatics store has one of those...these catfish grow quite big and they are able to move around on land so I've been told.

[christhedaddy]

Chloe is my second Claris, the first being an albino. We did try the 'walking' on the front room carpet but not too far. In the wild, Claris can move between pools by walking / wriggling through damp grass, normaly at night. If you are thinking of getting one you must provide enough space and have a very good filter system. I have Chloe in a 4ft bow-front tank with twin Fluval 405 canister filters, weekly 1/4 tank water changes and alternate filter cleaning every other week.

hope this helps !

[FireandWind]

Hi, I have one of those Claris catfish to and I would like to know what kind of substrate they prefer. I have river rocks and small gravel on the bottom of mine. I see you have sand. Is that better for them cause I noticed mine likes do burrow itself in the substrate sometimes?

[christhedaddy]

Hi, Chloe is my second Claris and with my first one I had a fine gravel substrate in the tank.

As they feed you will find they search through the sudstrate as the would in the wild, feeding on worms, crustaceans etc.

I have found that they prefer the sand as it is closer to the texture of the 'muddy bottom' enjoyed by their wild cousins.

Keep the sand loose by stirring it up once a week and try keeping it away from the filter inlets as the sand will destroy the filter.

[MsParakeetlover101]

thats my name :D

[jimmysherriff]

Yeah, 'Tank-busters' is a good description because those fish can grow quite big. My nearest aquatics stockist has one in a huge fish tank under his counter along with a couple of Oscars, a Giant Gourami and a Plec and another species of Catfish. His Claris must be at least 16 inches long.

[jimmysherriff]

Thanks for the info Chris but no, I don't plan on getting a Claris catfish for myself as I'm only a novice tropical fish keeper and I don't have a tank big enough!

In my opinion I think Claris Catfish are more eel-like than the usual Catfish but perhaps it's because of the long body. I know that my nearest aquatics shop has one on display in a massive fish tank. Are they expensive to buy?

[FireandWind]

Hi Again, I bought another Claris. They are so kool to watch together. My older one likes to swim around my arm when I put it in the water and touches me with his or her whiskers. Hard to tell what sex it is...LOL.

Denise

[FireandWind]

Hi and thanx. Also I can't seem to find too much information about them. Where or what site is a good place to look them up.