Mystus mysticetus Care Guide
Mystus mysticetus is a small peaceful Southeast Asian bagrid catfish that lives in shoals and suits larger peaceful communities.
Compiled by Aquairi from published sources · Published · Updated
Overview
Mystus mysticetus is a small bagrid catfish of the Mekong, Chao Phraya and Maeklong basins, recorded from Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. FishBase reports a standard length of about 13 cm. It is a peaceful, shoaling species often found around submerged objects.
Taxonomy
- Family: Bagridae
- Genus: Mystus
- Scientific name: Mystus mysticetus
- Describer: Roberts, 1992
Habitat
The species lives in rivers and migrates into flooded forest areas during the wet season, returning to the rivers around November–December. FishBase classifies it as freshwater, demersal and potamodromous; Seriously Fish reports a temperature of about 22–27 °C, pH 6.0–7.0 and hardness of 3–10 °H, and notes it is a facultative air-breather.
Tank requirements
- Minimum tank volume: 150 L
- Temperature: 22–26 °C
- pH: 6–7.5
- GH: 2–15 °dGH
- Adult size: 10–13 cm
- Lifespan: 5–10 years
Diet
Mystus mysticetus is omnivorous, with a trophic level near 3.1. In the wild it browses surfaces for zooplankton, aquatic insects, crustaceans and rotifers. In the aquarium it accepts most small live, frozen and dried foods; variety is recommended, offered once daily.
Compatibility
A peaceful, gregarious, bottom-dwelling catfish best kept in a small group where space allows. It works well with larger peaceful community fish, but may eat very small fish as an adult, so tiny tankmates and shrimp are best avoided.
Breeding
The species is oviparous, with possible distinct pairing. Aquarium breeding is rarely reported.
Conservation status
IUCN Red List: Least Concern, assessed 20 February 2011.
Breeding Mystus mysticetus
Overview
Mystus mysticetus is a small bagrid catfish of the family Bagridae, reaching about 13 cm standard length. FishBase records it from the Mekong and Chao Phraya basins and the Maeklong River. It is a potamodromous species: in the lower Mekong it moves into flooded forests during the rainy season and returns to the rivers in November and December. It is often found in mixed schools browsing hard surfaces for zooplankton, aquatic insects, crustaceans and rotifers, and the genus is capable of facultative air-breathing.
Spawning Behavior & Trigger
FishBase describes the species as oviparous, with distinct pairing possibly like other members of the family. The natural reproductive trigger is the rainy-season migration into flooded forest habitat, after which the fish return to the main river channels as water recedes. Detailed spawning behaviour, fecundity and egg data are not documented for this species.
Common Challenges
The principal obstacle is that reproduction depends on a seasonal floodplain migration that is difficult to replicate in captivity, and there are no published aquarium spawning accounts to build on.