Vermiculated squeaker

Care at a glance

Overview

You can keep one on its own or a small group of three or more, as long as there are enough hiding spots to go around. They are mostly peaceful and only mildly territorial over a favored retreat, not aggressive. Keep them at 22 to 27 C with a pH from 6 to 7.5, and go gentle on water changes since they react badly to large swings and raw tap water. They are omnivores that take most foods, but they bloat easily, so feed dried foods sparingly and lean on vegetable matter and frozen or live treats. House them with calm to moderately lively community fish that are too big to swallow, over about 5 cm, and skip aggressive Rift Lake cichlids.

In the wild

Vermiculated squeakers come from the Congo River basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in central Africa. They live along the bottom, rummaging and rasping at the substrate, so give them soft sand or a smooth surface that won't scratch their barbels. Keep them in a tank of at least 90 liters with dim lighting and plenty of caves, driftwood, and rockwork so each fish has its own retreat. Water should sit between 22 and 27 C, soft to moderately hard, with a pH of 6 to 7.5.

Good to know

This is an African squeaker catfish in the family Mochokidae. It tops out around 13 to 15 cm in the hobby, though FishBase lists a wild maximum closer to 17 cm. In the wild it's a seasonal egg scatterer with no parental care, and commercial or home breeding is barely documented, so don't expect to spawn it in a tank.

Did you know

The squeaker name is literal. These catfish can produce an audible squeak or croak by working the bony base of their pectoral fins against the shoulder socket, and you can sometimes hear it when one is netted or handled.

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