Speckled catfish: description and content features

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

The speckled catfish is a very common aquarium fish. It is characterized by extreme unpretentiousness and simplicity of maintenance. Therefore, breeding of this species can be recommended to novice aquarists. You can buy a fish in almost any pet store or market. The only downside to breeding is that the fish is constantly moving the ground, raising the mud, so you can't do without a filter.

In nature, speckled catfish has become widespread in South America, in the La Plata river basin. He likes to stay in shallow water, where the ground is soft, digging out various worms and insect larvae from there. Under natural conditions, the female can reach a length of 8 centimeters, the males are smaller - 6 cm, and in small aquariums, the size of the fish decreases by one and a half times.

The body of the speckled catfish, like the rest of the catfish, is rather short, the line of the back is convex, and the abdomen is straight. The male differs from the female both in size and in the dorsal fin. Atthe male is pointed, while the female is rounded, while the male looks more slender. The belly of the fish is light, in natural habitat it is orange-yellow. On the downward-pointing mouth are two pairs of antennae used for searching for food. The aquatic creature is diurnal, as a result of which you can freely observe its behavior.

The speckled catfish is very unpretentious in care. The optimal temperature for its life activity can vary widely (18-28 degrees), it is even possible to leave this range for a short time. For fish, the amount of oxygen dissolved in water is insignificant, since this species can use atmospheric air for its breathing, oxygen from which is absorbed by the fish in the colon.

For feeding fish, aquariums can use almost any food that lies on the bottom. Water can be used in any quality, it is important that it is not s alty. Individuals cannot stand table s alt, even the one that is used in the treatment of other fish. It is necessary to provide water filtration, since plants and other inhabitants of the aquarium will suffer from turbidity in the first place.

Spotted catfish is a flocking species, so it is best to take several individuals (5-6 pieces) for keeping. And for the neighborhood, you can start any fish that are peaceful in nature, with similar sizes. In the aquarium, shelters should be equipped or thickets of plants should be organized in which the fish love to hide from annoying neighbors. It is better to sprinkle fine soil on the bottom, in which water creatureswill rummage.

Of all the spawning fish, the speckled catfish is the easiest to breed. For spawning, an aquarium of 10 liters is suitable. For reproduction, it is necessary to enrich the water with oxygen by setting aeration. The optimum water temperature should be around 20 degrees. For spawning, one female and a pair of males are placed separately. In total, the female spawns about several hundred transparent large eggs. Caviar develops for about a week, large fry emerge from it, which grow rapidly and mature by 8 months. The lifespan of a catfish in captivity is 8 years.