Soft-spined tandan

Care at a glance

Overview

A large, gentle eel-tailed catfish that spends the day tucked under rock or wood and comes out at night to work the bottom for food. It is a solitary species, so house one to a tank, or a pair only where there is plenty of room. It does not pick fights, but it treats small fish as food, so choose larger, calm tankmates and choose them carefully. Offer meaty sinking foods such as prawn, mussel, earthworms, sinking pellets and frozen bloodworm after dark. It needs an open floor and shelter it can back into, so plan on a tank of around 400 liters or more.

In the wild

The soft-spined catfish is native to the Burdekin River system in northern Queensland, where it holds to rocky pools in the main channels and larger creeks. It is a warm-water fish, comfortable from about 21 to 28 C in neutral, moderately hard water near pH 6.5 to 7.8. Give it a sand or fine gravel bed, a scatter of smooth boulders for pools and hiding places, large driftwood, and strong, clean filtration.

Good to know

Neosilurus mollespiculum belongs to the eel-tailed catfish family Plotosidae and reaches about 44 centimeters, females running a little smaller than males. It is a bottom-feeding omnivore, taking insect larvae, small invertebrates and some algae. Breeding is not recorded in aquaria. The species is a narrow endemic, known only from the Burdekin River drainage in northern Queensland, which is one reason it is so rarely seen in the hobby.

Did you know

Its name means soft spine. Where most eel-tailed catfish carry stiff, venomous spines in the dorsal and pectoral fins, this species has let those spines go soft and flexible, a catfish that laid down its knives.

Common questions

Related species

• Narrow-fronted tandan

  Neosilurus ater

  Freshwater

  17.7 in (45 cm)119 gal (450 L)70–82°F (21–28°C)
• Southern tandan

  Neosilurus equinus

  Freshwater

  14.6 in (37 cm)106 gal (400 L)70–82°F (21–28°C)
• Yellow eel-tail catfish

  Neosilurus hyrtlii

  Freshwater

  13.4 in (34 cm)106 gal (400 L)70–82°F (21–28°C)
• Short-finned tandan

  Neosilurus brevidorsalis

  Freshwater

  9.4 in (24 cm)79 gal (300 L)70–82°F (21–28°C)

• 

  Marbled tandanus catfish

  Tandanus tandanus

  Freshwater

  31.5 in (80 cm)185 gal (700 L)61–79°F (16–26°C)

• 

  Glass knifefish

  Eigenmannia virescens

  Freshwater

  17.7 in (45 cm)85 gal (320 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)