"Knife" Catfish?

**rdickert** · 03-30-2012, 10:34 PM

Hi everyone! Hoping I can get some advice on a situation. Earlier in the week, I was at Petco and saw these relatively large catfish (about 4-5" in length) that were marked as a "knife catfish". I talked to the fish guy there at the store and he said that they were peaceful scavengers who would do well in a community tank. With that, I picked him up and homed him in the tank. As with most cats I have known, he is pretty passive during the day, and then gets a bit more active in the evenings.

After the first night, one of my gold dust mollies was missing - no floating remains - nothing. The fish was just gone. This got me to do a bit more research, and there is one post on the net that says these Petco knife catfish are actually ompok bimaculatus. Looking at pictures, he does look similar to this, but he doesn't have the spots - so I'm really not sure what he is. And if he was the culprit who ate the molly. I haven't had any more missing fish over the past few days, but I am wondering if anyone knows anything more about these fish and if they will be good in a basic community tank (mainly larger tetras).

Anyone else buy one of these and how did it work out for you? Appreciate any mindshare I can get here

Here's a pic I took of him this morning.

Click image for larger version.

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**Dangerdoll** · 03-30-2012, 11:14 PM

I have never heard of this kind of cat, but my gut instict is that if it can fit in the mouth and it's slow enough, it will be dinner with cats...

**Pudgeking** · 06-04-2012, 9:10 AM

Yep, those are ompok bimaculatus. I have one as well, and I can guarantee that these catfish will eat small tankmates. Mine was in a 10 gallon in petco for 3 months, living off of the platies/mollies they put in its tank, and I have trouble getting my ompok to feed on anything else besides live fish. They are awesome fish, but I would be much happier if mine would start taking pellets. They seem fairly skittish as well.

**808_fairladyz** · 09-14-2012, 11:01 PM

Originally Posted by Pudgeking

Yep, those are ompok bimaculatus. I have one as well, and I can guarantee that these catfish will eat small tankmates. Mine was in a 10 gallon in petco for 3 months, living off of the platies/mollies they put in its tank, and I have trouble getting my ompok to feed on anything else besides live fish. They are awesome fish, but I would be much happier if mine would start taking pellets. They seem fairly skittish as well.

Try feeding yours chopped up market shrimp or silver side or smelts.

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