Bengal tiger catfish

Batasio fluviatilis

Also known as Tiger batasio

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 72–79°F (22–26°C)
pH: 6.0–7.5
Adult size: 5 in (12.8 cm)
Minimum tank: 29 gal (110 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Salween basin streams
Family: Bagridae

Overview

This is a small, active bottom catfish that does best in the company of its own kind, so keep several together and give them room to move. They spend the day working the floor and the current for scraps of food, and they settle faster in a shaded tank with steady flow. Temperament is peaceful, so pair them only with small, calm community fish that will not push them off their meals. Feed sinking pellets, crushed wafers, and frozen foods such as bloodworm and daphnia, making sure enough reaches the bottom. A tank of around 110 liters or larger with strong water movement suits a small group.

In the wild

In the wild it lives in clear, fast-flowing hill streams and the upper reaches of small rivers in the Salween region and nearby basins of Southeast Asia, where the water is cool and heavily oxygenated. Recreate that with open swimming length, a fine sand or smooth gravel bed, water-worn stones, and current from a powerhead or strong filter. Keep the temperature in the 22 to 26 C band and the water soft to neutral, around pH 6.0 to 7.5. Clean, oxygen-rich water matters more to this fish than decor.

Good to know

Batasio fluviatilis is a bagrid catfish, part of the large Asian family Bagridae, and reaches about 12.8 centimeters on a slim, laterally compressed body marked with tiger-like bars. It was described by Francis Day in 1888. Like others in its genus it is a headwater specialist built for fast water, with a streamlined shape and generous fins for holding station in current. Breeding has not been recorded in aquariums, and imported fish are wild caught.

Did you know

The species name fluviatilis means of the river in Latin, a fitting label for a catfish that lives only in flowing hill streams and does poorly in still, warm water.