Irrawaddy shovelnose bagrid

Care at a glance

Overview

Sold as an elegant, silver, needle-nosed juvenile, this fish grows into a true giant of up to about 180 centimeters, well beyond anything a home aquarium can hold, so plan on a system of thousands of liters or accept that this is really a public-aquarium animal. It is an aggressive predator and will eat any tankmate it can swallow, so it is best kept entirely alone. Adults need enormous volumes of warm, clean, oxygen-rich water and open floor to move. Feed meaty foods such as whole fish, prawn, and large sinking items. The cute juvenile hides just how large this fish becomes, a decades-long commitment to an animal that can reach the length of a person, so think very hard before buying one.

In the wild

It is native to Myanmar, in the Irrawaddy, Bago, and Great Tenasserim river systems, where it patrols the beds of large, deep, flowing rivers. Nothing short of a public-scale tank or a large pond can house an adult, but the water it wants is warm at 23 to 28 C, soft to neutral around pH 6.0 to 7.5, and kept spotless and heavily oxygenated by strong filtration. A deep footprint of open sand with a few large, immovable structures reflects its river-bed home.

Good to know

Sperata acicularis is a giant bagrid catfish, family Bagridae, described by Ferraris and Runge in 1999 and reaching around 180 centimeters. Its name, acicularis, means needle-like and refers to its long, sharply pointed snout. It is an apex river predator armed with strong spines and long barbels. Breeding is not recorded in captivity, and it is a food and sport fish across its range.

Did you know

The trade often sells it as a Borneo shovelnose catfish, but the species is found only in Myanmar and has never lived anywhere near Borneo, more than a thousand miles away.

Common questions

Related species

• Kampango

  Bagrus meridionalis

  Freshwater

  59.1 in (150 cm)1,057 gal (4,000 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)
• Rita catfish

  Rita rita

  Freshwater

  59.1 in (150 cm)1,057 gal (4,000 L)72–86°F (22–30°C)

• 

  Asian redtail catfish

  Hemibagrus wyckioides

  Freshwater

  39.4 in (100 cm)450 gal (1,703 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)
• Redtail bagrid

  Hemibagrus nemurus

  Freshwater

  25.6 in (65 cm)185 gal (700 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)
• Tawny dragon catfish

  Tachysurus fulvidraco

  Freshwater

  13.4 in (34 cm)106 gal (400 L)61–79°F (16–26°C)

• 

  Harlequin lancer catfish

  Bagroides melapterus

  Freshwater

  11.8 in (30 cm)120 gal (455 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)