Photo: Baryancistrus xanthellus
Back in my early twenties I used to own a lot of aquariums, and I have recently begun to pick up on the hobby again after not having had the time or money to really do anything with it for the last 6-7 years. I still don't have neither too much time nor money, but I have felt an urge to find some hobbies again after becoming a parent, so it was time to get more involved with my fish tanks again. I was browsing some of the old photos of fish that I have owned back in the days, and came across one of one of my favorite catfish species.
This guy is called Baryancistrus xanthellus, often known as a "Golden Nugget" in the aquarium trade, and can naturally be found in Rio Xingu in the northern part of Brazil. He was actually a wild caught individual, which I have mixed feelings about when I'm looking back at it, but he sure was a nice catfish nonetheless.
The dots and yellow parts on his fins were bright yellow in real life, and this picture does not really do it justice, and this is really a fish that's worth seeing for yourself in real life. I haven't seen them in fish shops often, but when they are there you can expect a price tag of $50+ for a young individual. Or at least that's the price here in Norway.
This species of catfish can grow pretty big, but he is only about 6-7 centimeters in this photo. Unfortunately I didn't get to keep him until he reached his full size, and I had to sell him when I moved into a smaller apparently and didn't have the opportunity to keep any fish tanks for a while.
I hope to be able to get some cool species of pleco catfish again in the future, but right now I have my tanks filled with cheap Ancistrus sp. that are responsible for keeping it clean. The better-looking plecos like this one are both expensive and more difficult to keep, and I would have to upgrade my filtration system for these to thrive.
Oh man I loved the Golden Nuggets! Never had any in my own tank but I used to go and watch them in the pet stores.
Btw I also have strange feelings about keeping fish in aquariums now. I am not sure if even the most experienced aquarists with large tanks can imitate the fish´s natural environment to the point where the fish feel really good and happy. What do you think?
That's a good question. I guess one thing we should really consider is to what extent it's necessary to copy natural settings in order for them to thrive. For example, all natural settings will have lots of predators, but that is clearly not a good thing for the small fish we tend to keep in out aquariums. My point with this is that we should not always strive towards making it as natural as possible, but rather as good for the fish we keep as possible. Some parameters are also next to impossible to copy; there is no way an aquarium will ever have as high of a water from as a side river to the Amazon river.
That said, I do believe that most people don't really do enough to give the fish a good life, even to the extent that we should be able to. A lot of people have too big fish in their tanks, have too many fish, have a combination of fish that don't really do well with each other, have too little air flow or water flow, feed them the wrong types of food etc. It's a lot of work to learn enough about a fish species to be able to know all this, and you really got to invest a lot of time if you want to get to this point. I think a lot of this responsibility falls on both the people themselves, but also upon pet stores and other people who sell fish.
As for the cognitive abilities of the fish, I'm not so sure. What will it take to make a fish feel happy? From what I remember, this is a highly debated subject, but hopefully we will get some clearer answers in the future once more research has been done. I'm not even sure if it's ethical to keep fish in aquariums. I do personally believe that it is fine if we try to make it safe for them, but I'm also open to any suggestions about improving their welfare. I guess everyone will have to make up their own minds as to whether or not it's acceptable to keep fish in aquariums for hobby or entertainment purposes.
Wow, you raised some very interesting questions and points in this comment. I pretty much agree with everything from the predator issue and the shared responsibility of the keepers and sellers to the controversy related to the matter of "fish happinnes".
The problem I have is that the older (and hopefully also wiser) I am, the bigger my issue with the ethical point of view of keeping any wild living creature captive. I can see all the reasons why there is nothing wrong with it under certain circumstances, I just might have an issue with the principle as such. Or maybe I am just getting too sensitive and emotional, I don´t know...
He's is a beauty. There are some beautiful fish :)
Thanks. Yeah, there really are ;)
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