Soft-spined tandan

Care at a glance

Overview

The soft-spined tandan is a large, gentle eel-tailed catfish for the floor of a big tank. It suits a keeper with some experience.

Caring for the soft-spined tandan

Give a soft-spined tandan a tank of at least 106 gal (400 L), with an open floor and shelter it can back into. Lay a sand or fine gravel bed, then add a scatter of smooth boulders for pools and hiding places, plus large driftwood. It spends the day tucked under rock or wood.

Keep the water warm, neutral and moderately hard, at 70 to 82°F (21 to 28°C) and a pH of 6.5 to 7.8. Strong, clean filtration suits it. It comes out at night to work the bottom for food. This omnivore takes meaty sinking foods such as prawn, mussel, earthworms, sinking pellets and frozen bloodworm, offered after dark.

The soft-spined tandan is a solitary species. 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. Pick larger, calm tank mates, and choose them carefully.

Females run a little smaller than males. Breeding has not been recorded in aquaria.

Good to know

Neosilurus mollespiculum belongs to the eel-tailed catfish family Plotosidae. It is also called the mollespiculum tandan or the soft-spined catfish. In the wild it eats insect larvae, small invertebrates and some algae. Its narrow range is one reason it is so rarely seen in the hobby.

In the wild

The soft-spined tandan is a narrow endemic, known only from the Burdekin River system in northern Queensland. There it holds to rocky pools in the main channels and larger creeks.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Narrow-fronted tandan

  Neosilurus ater

  17.7 in (45 cm) · 119 gal (450 L)

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

• 

  Southern tandan

  Neosilurus equinus

  14.6 in (37 cm) · 106 gal (400 L)

  14.6 in (37 cm)106 gal (400 L)70–82°F (21–28°C)

• 

  Yellow eel-tail catfish

  Neosilurus hyrtlii

  13.4 in (34 cm) · 106 gal (400 L)

  13.4 in (34 cm)106 gal (400 L)70–82°F (21–28°C)

• 

  Short-finned tandan

  Neosilurus brevidorsalis

  9.4 in (24 cm) · 79 gal (300 L)

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

• 

  Marbled tandanus catfish

  Tandanus tandanus

  31.5 in (80 cm) · 185 gal (700 L)

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

• 

  Butter catfish

  Ompok bimaculatus

  17.7 in (45 cm) · 172 gal (650 L)

  17.7 in (45 cm)172 gal (650 L)68–82°F (20–28°C)