Neosilurus hyrtlii

[CLauf]

Does anyone have experience with keeping multiples of this species together? From what I understand many of the Plotosid cats can get aggressive with size (and mine can be a bit of a bully even now at 5") but I don't know if that is intensified with conspecifics or not. Fishbase does list it as a shoaling species but there aren't too terribly many keeper accounts. I got mine from The Wetspot a few months ago and it has done great and was thinking about getting another. It's a beautiful species with lots of personality, I was super pumped to snag a freshwater Plotosid after having attempted Plotosus lineatus a few times.

 

[moe214]

Schooling fish usually establish a hierarchy which means some aggression so two of anything usually isn't recommended but there's always exceptions.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

No experience with this cat.

Totally agree with Moe there.

If there is any tendency to establish a hierarchy, two is always a bad number (barring exceptions). Three is better but not great. I'd say 6+ for schooling fish like this.

 

[CLauf]

Thank you both for the input. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources at the moment to house 6+ foot long, beefy Neosilurus at the moment so I suppose he'll have to stay single for the time being until some tank space frees up. I would assume that these guys behaviorally would at least be similar to many other Plotosids in terms of schooling behavior and numbers, a quick search shows several Youtube videos of Tandanus in the wild in large groups, and I've had several small shoals of Plotosus lineatus/japonicus in the past which of course were a blast to watch. I'll have to keep digging to hopefully find more data about this fish in captivity, records are just so few and far between.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

It'd be nice to learn about this fish along with you.

 

[CLauf]

It'd be nice to learn about this fish along with you.

I'll update as I learn and grow with the fish I suppose. As of right now it seems inactive except at feeding time, at which point it becomes very active and almost aggressive. It seems to be growing at a decent enough clip. I may need to just break down and purchase a few more to monitor the behavior further, it may be that mine would be more gregarious with conspecifics. I suppose with such sparse keeper notes any information is good information.