Tiger Catfish

About

The tiger catfish (Pseudoplatystoma tigrinum) is one of those species that demands an honest conversation before any money changes hands. Native to the Amazon and Orinoco river basins, it moves through slow and fast river channels alike, venturing into flooded forest habitat as a juvenile and undertaking long seasonal migrations as an adult. The bold pattern of dark vertical stripes on a pale body makes it visually unmistakable, though it is frequently confused with the closely related P. fasciatum, which tends to show a more irregular, broken pattern. Though this distinction is not always reliable, and the two are routinely sold under the same common name. In the wild it is an opportunistic predator, taking fish, crabs, and shrimp, and that feeding strategy carries straight into captivity. Any tankmate small enough to fit in its mouth will eventually end up there. Companionship is possible with large doradid catfish or substantial characins and cyprinids in a very deep, very large setup. We are talking public-aquarium scale here. It is territorial toward its own kind and other large pimelodids. The real issue is size: these fish grow fast, hit close to their maximum dimensions in captivity, and can live upward of two decades. Juveniles are regularly sold without adequate disclosure of what they become. Unless you already have the infrastructure to house a four-foot-plus predator for life, this is a species best admired from a distance.