Tiger shovelnose catfish

Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum

Also known as Tiger shovelnose, TSN

FreshwaterFish

Tiger shovelnose catfish (Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum) — Chrumps · CC BY-SA 4.0

Care at a glance

Temperature: 75–82°F (24–28°C)
pH: 6.0–7.5
Adult size: 35.4 in (90 cm)
Minimum tank: 300 gal (1,135 L)
Temperament: Aggressive
Social behavior: Solitary
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Difficult
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Common
Origin: Amazon and Orinoco river basins, tropical South America
Family: Pimelodidae

Overview

Keep this fish alone in a tank of at least 1135 liters, or only with similarly large, fast, non-aggressive tankmates it cannot swallow. It is an aggressive, solitary, nocturnal predator that sits on the bottom by day and hunts at night, and it will eat any tankmate small enough to fit in its mouth. Hold the water at 24 to 28 C with a pH from 6 to 7.5, and run oversized filtration with strong oxygenation to handle the heavy bioload. Feed varied meaty foods like fish fillet, prawns, mussels, squid, and carnivore pellets, and skip feeder fish for disease and nutrition reasons. This is a monster fish that outgrows almost every home setup, so never release it into the wild and check your local rules, since large catfish are restricted in some regions.

In the wild

Tiger shovelnose catfish come from the big rivers of the Amazon and Orinoco basins in tropical South America, where they patrol open channels and roam the bottom hunting after dark. To house one you need a genuinely huge tank, at least 1135 liters as an adult floor, and footprint matters more than volume, so aim for a length around 8 feet so the fish can actually turn. Keep the water warm at 24 to 28 C, soft to neutral, with pH from 6 to 7.5. Give them a smooth sand substrate, plenty of open swimming space, and rounded decor with a tight cover, since this is a freshwater fish, not brackish.

Good to know

This is Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum, a large predatory catfish in the family Pimelodidae. It grows fast and reaches roughly 90 cm in captivity, sometimes near a meter, and larger still in the wild. It is not bred in home aquaria, so commercial stock is pond raised, and many fish sold as tiger shovelnose are actually hybrids crossed with Phractocephalus or Sorubim. Care for a pure fish is the same.

Did you know

Its eyesight is poor, so it relies on its long barbels to find food and tends to swim fast and panic easily. That combination is why a covered tank and rounded decor matter so much, because a startled fish will bolt and can scrape its snout or tear off barbels on hard edges or an open rim.