Orca catfish. Siamese killer whale (Leiocassis Siamensis)

Natural range The habitat of this fish is the fresh waters of Thailand and Kampucci

Appearance

Video. Appearance of the Siamese killer whale:

The elongated body, caudal fin, as well as the adipose fin are highly developed relative to the size of the fish itself. Wide dark stripes run across the body. In the dorsal and pectoral fins- thorns. Size: up to 20 cm, in an aquarium up to 12 cm.
The difference between a male and a female is that males are somewhat smaller and slimmer.

Video. Siamese killer whale in an aquarium:

The active time of the Siamese killer whale is twilight. The fish often hides in various holes, spaces between stones, snags, stones and other shelters - it is especially difficult to see the killer whale in fairly bright aquarium lighting, since it hides precisely from strong light. Can be kept with small fish species.

Conditions of detention:
Water for maintenance: GH up to 15°;
Acid-base composition of water: pH 6.5-7.5;
Temperature: t 2 1-25 °C.

Feed

You can feed the killer whale with live ice cream and dry food in small portions in the evening and at night.

Reproduction

Breeding conditions:
Water for dilution: GH up to 10°;
Acid-base composition of water: pH 7.0;
Temperature: t 26-28 °C
Carbonate hardness is minimal.
The spawning tank is equipped with a capacity of 100 liters or more. The recommended method of breeding is only by pituitary injection. The initial food for the fry is rotifer. The female lays up to 500 eggs.

Mystus striped is a non-aggressive and active fish. It has another name - Indian killer whale catfish. In nature, this playful representative water world lives in fresh waters Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries, but it may be suitable for keeping in an aquarium with other fish. If you organize proper care, the pet will delight others with its cheerful disposition and activity for 5-6 years.

Mystus striped is a non-aggressive catfish that lives in warm waters

General description

The correct Latin name for the species is mistus tenggara. It was studied and described in early XIX century. Representatives of the species grow up to 45 cm in natural conditions and up to 16-25 cm in captivity. In addition to transparent dorsal fin they have another one - fatty. The fins on the chest and abdomen are small and the tail is long.

On big head with large bulging eyes there are three pairs of whiskers. One pair grows by upper lip, and the other two, shorter ones, extend from the bottom. Thanks to these organs of touch, the fish feels great in the dark or thickets.

The spindle-shaped body of an adult representative is slightly flattened on the sides, has a pinkish-yellow color with tints of blue-violet. There are dark stripes on the body that merge with the main color when the fish is stressed, and there are black spots on the gill covers. In fry, this color does not appear immediately; at first they are uniformly silver, which is why they are easily confused with other species of the genus Mystus. But even representatives that have recently emerged from eggs have an interesting distinguishing feature- they can creak, creating sound with their pectoral fins.

The sex of catfish can be easily determined when the fish reach three months of age. Females grow larger and thicker, they have a clearly defined white belly, but the color is not very contrasting. Males are distinguished by their slenderness and a special process called the urogenital papilla.

The character of catfish is changeable. During the day, he is calm, hides in grottoes and eats young leaves of aquatic plants, and can swim on the surface with his belly up. For this reason it is also called the catfish-shifter. At night he becomes cocky and plays games with other inhabitants of the aquarium, which can sometimes develop into a fight. To prevent the fish from injuring each other, the mystus's neighbors need to be selected carefully, giving preference to calm representatives underwater world. But small fish are not suitable, as the catfish will begin to hunt them.

Its health, life expectancy and behavior depend on how comfortable a pet is in captivity. In a suitable environment, the Indian catfish feels great and shows the best traits of its character, in unfavorable conditions- suffers and becomes withdrawn and aggressive.

In order for mystus to be healthy and active, you need to equip the aquarium with decorations for games (for example, grottoes for hide and seek) and devices that maintain the necessary conditions for life, feed the pet properly and keep it together with other inhabitants of the underwater world.

Choosing an aquarium

An adult, fully formed mystus needs space for active swimming, so it will need a wide, low aquarium with a volume of 120-150 liters or even more. The container must be equipped with a lid, otherwise its inhabitants will jump out. To make the fish comfortable in their new place of residence, you need to put stones and driftwood on the bottom, and plant plants in the ground. To prevent the resident from completely destroying the green leaves by gnawing them, it is necessary to sometimes feed him with plant food.

Although in nature mystus sometimes swims into sea bays and feels great in a brackish environment, the water in the aquarium should be fresh and settled and also meet the following requirements:

• temperature - from 22 °C to 28 °C;
• pH - from 6.0 to 7.4;
• hardness - from 5 to 25 dH.

The water should be changed weekly by draining a quarter of the volume and compensating for it with fresh liquid. You can also drain the water completely and rinse the aquarium once every two weeks. This is a very important requirement for caring for mystus, since it likes to be at the bottom of its home, where nitrogenous pollution accumulates. If you do not change the fish’s habitat in time, it may develop health problems.

Changing the water regularly is very important when keeping catfish.

Additional equipment

Mistuses are not very difficult to keep at home, however, some additional equipment they will need it. First of all, you will have to purchase the following designs:

An oxygen compressor is absolutely necessary, since the fish are quite large and without a special installation they will not have enough oxygen dissolved in the water. Since the aquarium for mistuses needs a volumetric one, and the device must have a power of 60-75 W, it can be placed inside the container and decorated with plants. But you should remember 2 rules:

• the device must be located so as not to create cramped conditions for fish;
• it cannot be turned off at night, since it is at this time of day that the lack of oxygen is felt most acutely.

The filter system must be chosen external. Firstly, it will not take up space in the aquarium, since such structures are located outside the tank. And secondly, it will create a flow of water similar to the natural flow of a river.

If the quality of filtered water is not completely satisfactory, you can install an additional internal device. The main thing is that the equipment comes with replaceable filters, since passing water through contaminated and expired fillers is dangerous to the health of the fish.

The water heater must maintain the heat necessary for a comfortable life for the fish. This is especially important if the owner wants to start breeding aquarium inhabitants, for which it is necessary to maintain the temperature within strict limits with an accuracy of one degree. The device is equipped with a thermostat, which turns on heating when there is insufficient warm water and turns off when the set value is reached.

Nevertheless, the operation of even the highest quality and most expensive heater needs to be checked from time to time using a thermometer purchased separately. If the water turns out to be too hot or cold when the device fails, it can cost your pets not only their health, but also their lives.

Lighting will be needed not only for mistuses, but also for aquarium plants. When choosing lamps, you should give preference to lighting devices that provide a color temperature in the range from 5.5 to 6.5 thousand Kelvin.

It is important to check the water temperature in the aquarium from time to time

Proper feeding

A complete and varied diet is the key to the health of living beings. If they don't get enough nutrients, their immunity will decrease, and the body will begin to deplete. In nature, mystus hunts all living creatures that it can swallow. IN aquarium conditions the pet should be given live, frozen or dry food, nutritional tablets for bottom fish, herbal ingredients and healthy supplements.

When choosing food, you need to pay attention to its expiration dates and storage conditions. The food is kept in a closed container in a dark place. It is better not to take the product by weight, since no one can guarantee that it has not expired and was stored correctly.

It also doesn’t hurt to purchase vitamin supplements at the pet store. The most useful substances for fish are the following:

• Vitamin A for cell growth and stress reduction in captivity;
• group B to support metabolism;
• C and D for the formation and development of the skeletal system;
• E to normalize reproductive function;
• H for cell development;
• K to support the circulatory system;
• M to improve coloring.

Supplements may also contain beneficial minerals such as magnesium and iodine.

Vitamins in liquid form are added to water or food at the rate of 6 drops per individual. It is especially important to use drugs during pet illness and immediately after their recovery, during transportation and relocation, during fish breeding and fry growth, and when changing seasons.

From time to time, the fish should be pampered with salad, oatmeal and worms. But all portions should be small, since the catfish tends to eat every last crumb and pick up leftover food from other aquarium inhabitants. Overeating can lead to bloating and constipation, so you need to remember the rule of the ideal portion: it should be completely eaten by the fish within 3-5 minutes.

Feeding should be done once a day. During the week you need to alternate between dry and live food; the latter would be brine shrimp, bloodworms, daphnia, coretra, tubifex, rotifer or gammarus. It is important not to bring it along with living organisms pathogenic bacteria or viruses. To do this, fish food must be thoroughly washed or soaked in methylene blue.

There is no need to give catfish too much food, as they are prone to gluttony.

Compatibility with other fish

The Indian catfish cannot feel at ease alone. He becomes either fearful or aggressive. But settling different types fish in one container, you need to take into account their compatibility. Mystus striped feels best in the company of 3-5 relatives, since this species is a gregarious one. If you plan to keep other fish in the same aquarium, it is worth remembering that the catfish quite aggressively guards its territory, so its neighbors must be comparable or larger so that it does not injure them. Cichlids, astronotuses and macrognaths are suitable for him.

Such popular aquarium inhabitants as rasboras, guppies, danios or neons will not get along with largemouth catfish, which will quickly swallow them. Decorative fish with veil fins and tails will also not be able to exist in the same place with mystus, since it will chase them, plucking the fluttering swimming organs.

Cichlids are suitable as aquarium neighbors for catfish

Breeding rules

Having grown halfway, the catfish already becomes sexually mature. But breeding mystus in aquarium conditions is not an easy task, since in captivity the male and female are practically not interested in each other. Reproduction can be stimulated only with the help of pituitary injections.

In addition, you need to set up a special 100-liter spawning tank with a substrate in the form of a sponge or moss. Water parameters must differ from those maintained under standard conditions. The requirements for them are:

• temperature strictly 26 °C;
• pH 6.0;
• hardness 4 dH.

You can put one female and several males or just a couple of fish in the tank. They need to be provided with enhanced and varied nutrition, active aeration in an aquarium. If everything is done correctly, the female will collect eggs, after which all producers need to be injected with a mixture of human chorionic gonadotropin and bream pituitary gland. In the best case, the female will be able to lay up to 500 eggs, from which in 30 hours the fry will develop, feeding not only on microplankton, but also on each other. To avoid this, catfish striped mystus need to be sorted by size and fed with Artemia nauplii.

Mystuses themselves practically do not reproduce in captivity

This entire procedure can only be carried out by professionals in specialized nurseries, from where the bred fish are sold. The difficulty is that in addition to the specific conditions that need to be created for breeding, very complex manipulations may be necessary in case of difficulties, for example, expressing eggs from a female or bringing the water to a normal state when it is clouded with milk.

The striped catfish is unusual in appearance, interesting in behavior and an aquarium inhabitant that interacts with other fish. It adapts well to living conditions in captivity and actively responds to changes environment, has the rudiments of intelligence and can recognize the owner. At night, it swims with its belly to the surface, allowing itself to be petted, and when the light is turned on, it quickly hides in shelters at the bottom.

Siamese killer whale or Leiocassis Siamensis - detailed description, photos, videos, features of keeping and breeding in a home aquarium

Description of the genus “Leiocassis”

Order: Cypriniformes
Suborder: Catfish (Siluroidei)
Family: Orcas (Bagridae)

Siamese killer whale: keeping and breeding fish.

Size up to 12 cm.

Lives in reservoirs of Thailand and Kampuchea.

The male is smaller and slimmer than the female.

Leads twilight image life, likes to hide in cracks and shelters, especially in brightly lit aquariums. Takes any live and dry food. Can be kept with small fish species.

Water for maintenance: dH up to 15°; pH 6.5-7.5; t 2 1-25 °C.

Water for dilution: dH up to 10°; pH 7.0; t 26-28 °C Carbonate hardness is minimal.

The spawning tank is equipped as for the previous type, but with a capacity of 100 liters or more. Dilution only by pituitary injection method.

Starter food for fry- rotifer. The female lays up to 500 eggs.

Video

11 & 12cm Asian Bumblebee Catfish (Leiocassis Siamensis) Fish

Orca catfish fighting

catfish-killer whales.avi

The Siamese killer whale (pseudomystus siamensis, leiocassis siamensis), not the killer whale as found in most search queries, is a member of the killer whale catfish family, which is found exclusively in freshwater bodies of South Asia.

In an aquarium it reaches a maximum of 12cm, in nature it can grow up to 20cm. Sexual dimorphism is weakly expressed; it is possible to distinguish a male from a female only by its smaller and more slender body.

The lifespan of the Siamese killer whale catfish (correctly Orca) is about 5-6 years.

Terms

This type of aquarium fish loves space. – the aquarium is selected from 100 l, while long length height is preferred. In a large, spacious tank, the number of fights between males is reduced to a minimum, which allows breeding larger number these catfish. The aquarium should also come with a filter, a compressor and a lid (orcas are very active, playful and jumping).

The water must be clean and fresh (no salt!), its parameters: temperature 20-25°C, hardness up to 15°dH and acidity 6.5-7.5pH. Change the water once a week, about a third of the total volume.

Soil - coarse sand, pebbles, gravel, no coral or marble chips, they are suitable only for cichlids, as they increase rigidity. Lighting is moderate, diffused, the Siamese killer whale (a killer whale is a bird, a swallow) does not like bright light and tries to hide from it in all sorts of crevices. Decorations - grottoes, broken pots, tubes in which you can hide (not too narrow or small, otherwise your pets have a good chance of getting stuck there).

This type of catfish prefers to swim in the water column in its active phase (which begins with the arrival of twilight). The fish can sometimes be seen hanging upright among thickets of plants, so a small number of them (Vallisneria works well) will be quite appropriate.

Feeding

Siamese killer whales do not overeat their food; they eat dry, frozen, and, of course, live food. The killer whale catfish (orca) loves to eat bloodworms. Since this catfish is a nocturnal creature, it is advisable to feed it in the late afternoon or at night.

Compatibility with other fish

Orca fish rarely exhibit their predatory instincts and, as a rule, coexist peacefully with most calm species of similar sizes. However, in order to avoid problems, it is better to exclude too small representatives of the aquatic world from the aquarium. Killer whales can also pose a danger to fry.

The catfish itself can only be threatened by large and predatory fish.

Reproduction

Dilute in home aquarium Unfortunately, an amateur aquarist will not be able to create a Siamese killer whale. Despite the conditions that are quite accessible to create (spawning tank - 100 liters or more, water with a temperature of 26-28 ° C and hardness up to 10 ° dH, spawning substrate, plants, imitation of the rainy season to stimulate spawning - daily replacement of part of the water with fresh water), these fish refuse to spawn without additional stimulation in the form of hormone injections.

However, even when using injections, eggs from females and milt from males have to be squeezed out manually, after which fertilization is carried out independently. The amount of caviar obtained in this way is 500-800 eggs. They ripen in an incubator at the bottom, without additional aeration, for two to three days.

The juveniles are quite large and are fed by rotifers and small plankton. Adults are considered to be individuals over the age of one year.

Video: Siamese killer whale

Comes from the vast Mekong River basin - the largest in Southeast Asia, from the territory of modern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Lives in waters with slow flow among the flooded trees and their roots. During the daytime it stays close to shelters, and at night it comes out in search of food.

Brief information:

• Aquarium volume - from 100 l.
• Temperature - 20–26°C
• pH value - 5.8–7.8
• Water hardness - from soft to hard (5–25 dGH)
• Substrate type - any soft
• Lighting - dim
• Brackish water - acceptable in a concentration of 1 teaspoon of salt per 10 liters
• Water movement is weak
• The size of the fish is up to 12 cm.
• Nutrition - protein (meat) diet
• Temperament - relatively peaceful
• Keeping alone or in a small group if shelters are available

Description

Adults reach a length of about 15 cm. The main color is a dark chocolate shade with several vertical and diagonal stripes of a yellowish tint. A similar pattern is reflected in one of the popular names for this species, “bumblebee catfish.” Sexual dimorphism is weakly expressed, males have more contrasting colors, and females are somewhat stockier than their partners.

Nutrition

It belongs to the carnivorous species, and in part can be called miniature predators. The Siamese catfish hunts small fish, aquatic insects and their larvae, worms, crustaceans, etc. In a home aquarium, it can adapt to receiving fresh meat and frozen products such as meat freshwater shrimp, mussels, pieces of white fish, earthworms.
You should not serve meat of animal origin; they are difficult to digest and can cause digestive problems.

Maintenance and care, arrangement of the aquarium

The optimal aquarium size for one catfish starts from 100 liters. Because it's shy and night dweller, then the design should include dim lighting and the presence of shelters (driftwood, ceramic pots, scraps of plastic tubes, etc.). At joint content With other catfish, provide several areas with shelters so that each of them can create their own territory. Any soft substrate, plants are not required, but if desired, you can use some shade-loving plants unpretentious plants and mosses.
When placing the equipment, place the heaters away from the hiding places and, especially, do not combine them so that the catfish do not accidentally overheat. Otherwise, the Asian bumblebee catfish is completely unpretentious and is able to successfully adapt to various water conditions, occurs naturally even in brackish systems.

Behavior and Compatibility

If you do not keep it with small fish, then there will be no problems with compatibility with other species. Catfish goes well with large and medium-sized cyprinids, peaceful cichlids and many others. As for intraspecific relations, there is competition for territory and if there is not enough space, skirmishes are possible

Breeding/reproduction

In nature mating season occurs with the arrival of the rainy season, when significant changes in the composition of the water occur, which in turn is a stimulus for spawning. In a home aquarium, it is almost impossible to reproduce natural cycles without the use of hormonal injections used on fish farms.

Fish diseases

The main cause of health problems is unsuitable living environment. If the first symptoms are detected, you should check the water parameters and the presence of high concentrations hazardous substances(ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, etc.), if necessary, bring the indicators back to normal and only then begin treatment. Read more about symptoms and treatment methods in the section "