Marbled tandanus catfish

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a large, long-lived Australian catfish that spends its life on the bottom, cruising the floor at night and resting under wood or stone by day. It is not a social fish, so keep one to a tank rather than a group. Its temperament toward tankmates is calm, but it will hoover up anything small enough to fit in its mouth, so choose tankmates with care and pick larger, robust fish rather than small ones it could swallow. Feed meaty sinking foods such as prawn, mussel, earthworms, sinking pellets and frozen bloodworm, offered after lights out when it comes up to feed. This is a big animal that needs a floor it can patrol, so plan on a tank of at least 700 liters.

In the wild

The marbled tandanus lives in the rivers, lakes and billabongs of the Murray-Darling and other eastern Australian systems, much of it in temperate country that turns cold in winter. That makes it a coolwater fish rather than a tropical one, comfortable from about 16 to 26 C, so it can be kept without a heater in a mild room. Give it a sand or fine gravel floor, smooth rocks and large driftwood for shelter, steady filtration and neutral water around pH 6.5 to 7.8.

Good to know

Tandanus tandanus belongs to the eel-tailed catfish family Plotosidae and reaches about 80 centimeters, a heavy fish that can live for well over a decade. Like others in its family it carries serrated spines in the dorsal and pectoral fins that can deliver a painful venomous sting, so handle it and its net with care. Home breeding is not recorded and almost all stock is farmed or wild caught, but in nature spawning pairs rake gravel into a broad circular nest that the male then guards until the eggs hatch.

Did you know

Spawning fish build a nest by pushing gravel and stones into a ring up to a couple of meters across. Anglers who find these circles on the riverbed call them fairy rings, and the fish itself earns the country name dewfish.

Common questions

Related species

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• Soft-spined tandan

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• Southern tandan

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• Yellow eel-tail catfish

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• Short-finned tandan

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• 

  Clown knifefish

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