What is safe with the shovelnose?

M

mooseman

518 and counting!
Nov 27, 2002
35
0
0
Utah
Visit site
Happy holidays everyone and thank you for the information on my last question about my shovelnose. Here is another one for you.

So far I have lost 9 gold fish (no big deal, they were left over from cycling the tank)! But last night one of my Bala sharks came up missing. I thought they would be safe due to their speed and the fact that they were about 3 1/2 inches long and the shovel nose is only 8 1/2 inches. MY MISTAKE, one down, one pretty battered and another one for tonights meal I guess. The only thing still untouched is my Oscar (4 inches) and my Green Sevrum 1 1/2 inches (He stays hidden at night and my hopes are high that he can make it)! and my 9 inch Moray Eel.

Here is my question for those of you who have these fish. What in the world can I keep with him? I wanted a little variety but am I going to have to stick with Oscars etc.... or do I just need to buy bigger fish? Is there anything I can keep with him that is fast enough, mean enough etc.......that won't end up as a meal for this guy? I love the cat fish and plan to keep him, I would just like something else in the tank that can live with a swimming appetite!

As always, thanks for your help!
 
2 Questions

1) What species is the shovelnose?

Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum
" " tigrinum

Platystomatichthys sturio

Sorubim Lima?

2) What size tank is the fish going to be kept in at its adult size?

ttl
 
You must be careful to keep Shovelnose with fish that are much larger than it's mouth. This means in all directions these fish must be larger not just lenght. My general rule with my TSN is not to keep any fish with it that is not at least 2" larger than it's mouth in all directions minimum. You also may have to adjust thier tankmates as the SN grows. If the tankmates start to look stressed and are hiding alot it is a good indication that the SN is starting to bother the other fish at night and is considering them as prey. Good tankmates for a lima would include Silver Dollars and any other larger peaceful fish.
 
It is a Sorubim Lima and the tank is 150 gallons.

And thanks for the advice so far.
 
As stated anything too big to fit easily in its mouth should be safe. However, if you already have the lima, an oscar, the eel, and the severum, I'd say that the tank will be pretty full in the long run with what you have now. When I had my lima, I also kept a variety of plecos and a Polypterus weeksii. The Polypterus and lima were great tankmates as neither were aggressive and they both hunted by a stalking method as opposed to the chase 'em down and crash into everything method such as an oscar. My advice to just keep what you have, but if you want to add more, I'd say a Polypterus would be a cool addition so long as there is enough food for all of your predators to get enough to eat.
 
You are talking about a tank,not a natural habitat,there is no infinite space the fish can run to,no matter how fast a fish is,the predator can sit and wait or corner it and eat the fast fish,take for example,shrimps swims faster than a clown knife but the clown knife always gets the shrimps.
 
Jiggerpolebill,

In response to your question about the freshwater Moray Eel. The only other common name I have seen is Freshwater Snowflake Eel. There are actually two scientific names that you can get ( I don't know them off hand) but if you look up Freshwater Moray Eel in a search engine it will give you quite a bit of information on them. There seems to be some controversy about what they are but I have kept them a couple of different times and they are quite interesting, not real exciting as they are nocturnal, but interesting.

Mooseman
 
I agree with the others that you need deeper bodied tank mates, or other fish just too large to be eaten. IME Limas are very peaceful but they do have large mouths and appetites :)

Depending on which source you are looking at Limas can grow to a maximum of 12" or 18" or even more ;) So any fish you get needs to be uneatable when the lima gets to these sizes too. I had to close down my Lima tank when I moved house and returned him to the LFS when about 10". He had grown quickly to that size but I believe their growth slows after 12".

If you want a shoaling mid water fish then you can either fork out for large (and IME expensive) Balas (6"+ should be safe with Limas of any size I would think) or go for a deeper bodied fish such as Silver Dollars. Some species of Rainbowfish are quite deep bodied too and might be OK. All these should be OK with oscars and severums too. Don't trust speed to help your fish escape. I have tried keeping fair sized giant danios with my polypterus and he eats them at night when they are sleeping / resting, just like your Shovelnose will.

I kept mine with Striped doras, Hoplo cats, polypterus (Senegal and Ornate) and some mid sized cichlids without any problem. None were swallowable however :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom