Species name: Plotosus lineatus
Common names: Striped eel catfish, Coral Catfish, Marine Catfish
Family: Plotosidae
Order: Siluriformes
Class: Actinopterygii
Maximum length: 12.6
Minimum tank size: 100 gallons or 250 gallons for a group
Hardiness: Easy
Aggressiveness: Peaceful and compatible with most fish of equal size or larger.
Reef Compatibility: With caution. They may eat small fish and invertebrates.
Distribution: Indo-Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to Samoa, north to southern Japan, southern Korea, and the Ogasawara Islands, south to Australia and Lord Howe Island. Palau and Yap in Micronesia. Sometimes enters freshwaters of East Africa (Lake Malawi) and Madagascar.
Diet: Omnivore. In the wild, it forages in the sand for crustaceans, molluscs, worms and sometimes fish. Larger individuals sometimes eating small fish. In the aquarium, it should be fed a variety of fresh or frozen seafoods and flaked food. It will dig in and out of the sand in search of food, so it is ideal to “sink” meaty foods to the tank bottom.
Additional information:
The Striped eel catfish, also known as Coral Catfish or Marine Catfish is from the Indo-Pacific where it can be found in coral reefs, estuaries and open coasts.
Juveniles usually form dense schools of about 100 fish while adults are solitary or occur in smaller groups of around 20 individuals.
They are the only catfish found in coral reefs and are known to hide under ledges during the day and search and stir the sand incessantly for crustaceans, mollusks, worms, and sometimes fish.
The Striped eel catfish has a long and cylindrical body, flattening into an eel-like tail. They can be recognised by their striped colouration (two or three stripes) and their four pairs of barbels around the mouth. The body is black or brown and the stripes are yellow. The stripes tend to fade in adults, although they are still faintly visible in most cases.
They also have venomous spine at the beginning of the first dorsal and each of the pectoral fins.
The ideal aquarium should have sand or gravel with plenty of live rock with caves to hide during the day. They do best when kept in group. They may stop eating if kept alone. They can live in freshwater for a short while but they are saltwater fish and need a specific gravity between 1.023 to 1.025. However, their ability to tolerate freshwater can make it easier to treat marine diseases that die in freshwater.
