The bag-haired catfish has an exotic look.Its habitat is limited to the fresh waters of the countries of Southeast Asia: Burma, Laos, Thailand, India, Vietnam and the island of Sri Lanka. Under natural conditions, it can reach impressive sizes - from 60 to 70 cm. Currently, this catfish is very popular with aquarists.
The baggy catfish body is long and slightlyflattened from the sides. When the fish swims, its movements resemble snake. The head is small, pointed, small eyes. Eight pairs of rather long whiskers are located around the mouth opening.
Плавники у этого сомика небольшие и немного rounded, except anal, as it has a long and pointed shape. Two of them, more precisely, the thoracic and the dorsal, are equipped with poisonous spikes. That is why it is necessary to take the catfish with great care, because their shots are quite painful. The action of their poison resembles a bee. For this reason, it can pose a serious danger to people who are predisposed to various kinds of allergic reactions.
In catfish, ranging from gill wings toof the tail itself, there are unusual respiratory organs due to which the fish can breathe air, lying long and motionless at the bottom of the aquarium or buried in silt. There are several variants of its color, including gray-black, brown and albino.
Bag-breeding catfish - fish unpretentious.For its comfortable living and free swimming, an aquarium of more than 100 liters is needed. Capacity must be arranged in such a way that it was enough stones, caves and snags. In addition, it must be equipped with both a filter and aeration system.
When choosing the soil should be preferredsmall pebbles. She needs to fill the bottom of the aquarium with a layer of 1.5-2 cm. It is desirable that the tank has a lid, as catfish often jump out of its limits. Without water, the fish can live no more than two hours. Most often, it dies due to damage it has received when falling from a height.
Taking care of a bag-tailed soma does not take much time. The water in the aquarium should be replaced every week by about a quarter of its volume. Its temperature should be at least +22 ... + 25 ⁰C.
Catfish are quite voracious and can eat likelive and frozen feed. They can be fed with pieces of fish and shrimp, scraped meat, etc. Newborn fry are happy to eat artemia.
The bag-tailed catfish is a predator that fitsfor a specific aquarium. It is impossible to keep small fish together with him, otherwise they will become his prey. For him, a single existence is preferable. The activity of the fish falls on the dark time of the day, and in the afternoon it likes to climb into some kind of shelter or to bury itself in the mud.
Often this type of catfish is quite peaceful,however, sometimes they can sort things out with their neighbors, fighting for their territory. In rare cases, they show aggression, but only when they attack themselves. A bag-tailed catfish in an aquarium can be kept with small fish, but only until it outgrows them. As soon as it becomes larger than them, small guppies, angelfish, danios and telescopes are best moved to another aquarium.
Хорошими соседями для сомика могут стать крупные species such as Labo, polypteruses, barbs, iris, cichlids, Kalamohty and gourami. Also sometimes parrot fish is planted in an aquarium. Given that the catfish is often kept at the bottom, with it you can keep different riding species of fish together.
Puberty in a bag-haired catfishcomes to the second year of life and may be accompanied by a change in color. To create good conditions for reproduction, it is necessary to equip a spawner, the volume of which should be approximately 100 liters. Its content should be similar to the main aquarium. After that, a suitable pair of catfish is deposited there and they begin to stimulate their spawning, by gradually increasing the water temperature, bringing it to the level of +27 ... + 29 ⁰C.
On average, a female can produce about five hundred.eggs These catfish do not build special nests for their future offspring, but try to arrange them in some kind of shelter. It protects the eggs and youngsters exclusively male. However, it is best to put the parents in the general aquarium immediately after spawning, and replace a quarter of the water. The larvae are born in a day. Unfertilized and whitened caviar will pollute the spawner, so it must be removed in time.
Fry are formed on the third or fourth day after fertilization. Initially, their respiratory organs are not well developed, so they often have to rise to the surface. water in order to get enough oxygen. Given this feature, the level of the water column should not exceed 20 cm.
Fry are transplanted into the main aquarium only.when they reach 5-6 cm in length. It is worth noting that they grow unevenly, so you need to monitor their development and remove the largest individuals in time, as they can start fights over the territory and eat their smaller counterparts.
