Two-spot catfish

Care at a glance

Overview

The two-spot is an easy, peaceful catfish that stays small and does best in a group of five or more, where it is far more active and confident. It suits a soft-water community with tetras, rasboras, and other calm fish, and mostly ignores tankmates, though it may snap up the tiniest fry. Feed sinking pellets, frozen bloodworm, and other small meaty foods. A group is comfortable in a tank around 114 liters with wood and shade.

In the wild

The two-spot catfish comes from soft, slightly acidic, often tannin-stained streams of Sumatra and Borneo, foraging over the bottom among wood and leaf litter. It is most active in low light and shelters in cover by day. Give it soft sand, driftwood, floating plants for shade, and gentle flow at 22 to 27 degrees C with a pH of 6.0 to 7.5.

Good to know

Mystus bimaculatus is a small bagrid reaching about 12 cm, with a reddish to pinkish body, one dark spot on the shoulder and another on the tail base, and long slender barbels. It is a gregarious, shoaling catfish, unusual among the often more solitary bagrids. Breeding is not documented in aquariums.

Did you know

Unlike most bagrid catfish, which prefer to go it alone, this little species is a true shoaler and looks its best moving through the tank in a loose group.

Related species

• 

  Striped mystus

  Mystus vittatus

  8.3 in (21 cm)60 gal (227 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)
• Asian upside-down catfish

  Mystus leucophasis

  11.8 in (30 cm)50 gal (190 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Dwarf bumblebee catfish

  Pseudomystus leiacanthus

  2.4 in (6 cm)20 gal (75 L)70–77°F (21–25°C)
• Asian bumblebee catfish

  Pseudomystus siamensis

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• Black lancer catfish

  Bagrichthys macracanthus

  9.1 in (23 cm)55 gal (210 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
• Harlequin lancer catfish

  Bagroides melapterus

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