Platydoras costatus

[ragn4rok]

Not a very good picture. Anyone have tried to keep this fish? How large it can be? How about it's compatibility with aquascape? Thanks

[benny]

It's actually quite a common fish here and sometimes it's called talking catfish although I doubt it can really talk. 3 inches specimen can be found here but most in the range of 1 to 1.5 inches. I understand there's even an albino variant too. Very costly.

Quite a hardy fish, but most of the hobbyists I know know are not keeping them in planted tanks. Mostly in catfish tanks that have some Anubias spp. at best.

As long as they are catfishes, they scavenge. Which means a fair bit of digging around. If your plants are deep rooted and matured, then it's fine, otherwise, you may find your larger catfishes disagreeing with your aquascape.

Cheers,

[mickthefish]

it's a common fish over here as well, when they get bigger they do make a sound with vibrating thier pectoral fins it sounds like a saw going very quickly.
the largast one ive had is eight inches, it was'nt very often i saw it but what i did notice was fish with a complete lobe of the tail missing,
so one night i turned the lights of early and saw the bugger take a chunk out of one of my corys.
next day we parted waves, i give him away.

cheers
mick

[bryan]

It's believed to eat snails.I still have a pair in a water feature together with some comets. A full grown one will have a mouth that fits a small tetra or rasbora nicely, very appropriate when the small fish go to sleep.

[fireopal]

They kind of make squeaking sounds when out of the water.

and they like to wedge themselves into narrow areas of bog wood.

[hwchoy]

I dumped mine outside the house little pond, has been quietly growing there I think it is probably 6 inches by now.

[fireopal]

You will be amazed at their growth rates..