Common woodcat

Care at a glance

Overview

The common woodcat is an easy, hardy catfish that stays a manageable size and does well in a group, spending the daylight hours packed into wood and emerging in the dark. It is mostly peaceful but will eat small fish and shrimp at night, so keep it with tankmates too big to swallow. Feed sinking pellets, frozen foods, and meaty items after lights out. Provide hollow driftwood in a tank of around 190 liters, and do not expect to see much of it during the day.

In the wild

The common woodcat is a widespread driftwood catfish of northern South America, jamming itself into hollow logs, wood crevices, and root tangles by day and coming out to forage at night. It is strongly nocturnal and shy of light. Give it plenty of driftwood with tight hollows, a soft floor, dim lighting, and soft to neutral water at 22 to 28 degrees C.

Good to know

Trachelyopterus galeatus reaches about 22 cm and belongs to the auchenipterid driftwood catfish, a group notable for internal fertilization. The male passes sperm to the female using a modified anal fin, and she can store it and spawn later, sometimes weeks after mating. It was long known under the name Parauchenipterus galeatus.

Did you know

Unlike most catfish, woodcats mate through internal fertilization, and a female can carry live sperm inside her for weeks before laying, so a lone female may suddenly produce fertile eggs long after any male is gone.

Related species

• Bottlenose catfish

  Ageneiosus marmoratus

  7.9 in (20 cm)95 gal (360 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)
• Jaguar catfish

  Liosomadoras oncinus

  9.1 in (23 cm)65 gal (245 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)

• 

  Gulper catfish

  Asterophysus batrachus

  9.8 in (25 cm)95 gal (360 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)
• Midnight catfish

  Auchenipterichthys coracoideus

  4.3 in (11 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–77°F (22–25°C)
• Pygmy driftwood catfish

  Trachelyichthys exilis

  3.1 in (8 cm)21 gal (80 L)72–77°F (22–25°C)
• Oil catfish

  Centromochlus perugiae

  2.4 in (6 cm)15 gal (55 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)