Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish (Megalechis thoracata), Captive-Bred!
Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish (Megalechis thoracata), Captive-Bred!
Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish (Megalechis thoracata), Captive-Bred!
Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish (Megalechis thoracata), Captive-Bred!
Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish (Megalechis thoracata), Captive-Bred!
Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish (Megalechis thoracata), Captive-Bred!
Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish (Megalechis thoracata), Captive-Bred!

Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish (Megalechis thoracata), Captive-Bred!

Regular price$ 17.99
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* For the safety of our animals, we now ship live fish exclusively via UPS Next Day Air.  If your order contains this item, you will only see UPS Next Day Air as a shipping option during checkout *

The Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish is a very interesting South American species that is very peaceful and grows to a manageable size. It can be kept with community fish as well as larger, more aggressive fish!

 

The Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish (Megalechis thoracata) is a medium-sized catfish species that is native throughout northern South America. It has been a very popular aquarium fish for many years due to its hardiness, generally peaceful nature, and attractive markings. It grows too large for the nano aquarium, but is an excellent candidate for the medium or large aquarium, especially Amazon-type setups with cichlids or tetras. This albino variety is rather uncommon and still displays a great deal of coloration!

 

The Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish is a gregarious species, although it is also fine as a single specimen in an aquarium. It is somewhat reclusive and definitely requires ample hiding places in the form of driftwood, pipes, or other crevices. It will be more outgoing when kept in a group. Multiple specimens will sometimes wedge into the same refuge. This fish is not particularly territorial or aggressive, but like most catfish, it will prey on anything small enough to fit in its mouth, such as tiny fish, dwarf shrimp, and fry. It will not bother plants. It is not particularly sensitive, but it prefers fairly calm to moderate water flow. It does like to root around in the substrate in search of food, so its aquarium should be furnished with sand or fine, smooth gravel.

 

Feeding is very simple for the Albino Spotted Hoplo Catfish. In the wild, it mainly feeds on small crustaceans and other invertebrates. In the aquarium, it will accept most live, frozen, and dry meaty foods, although some vegetable matter (such as spirulina-rich dry foods) is recommended as well. It is a voracious eater, so care should be taken not to overfeed. Inserting food near the fish's hiding place is very effective, although it will typically learn to come out of hiding with enthusiasm when food is available.

 
What We Like About This Fish:
  • Beautiful pink and black markings
  • Completely peaceful with anything too large to be considered prey
  • Excellent scavenger
  • Will not bother plants
  • Rare captive-bred specimens
 
RECOMMENDED TANK PARAMETERS:
  • Temperature:  64° - 82° F (18° - 28° C)
  • pH:  6.0 - 8.0 
  • KH:  2 - 20 dKH
  • Minimum tank size:  55 gallons for a small group  
 
CARE GUIDELINES:
  • Diet:  Omnivorous. Will accept most dry, frozen, and live meaty foods
  • Social behavior:  Peaceful, nocturnal, somewhat gregarious
  • Origin:  Captive-bred, but indigenous throughout Northern South America
  • Average adult size:  6 inches (15 cm)
  • Average purchase size:  1.5 inches (3.8 cm)

 

All Aquatic Arts brand plants and animals come with a 100% live arrival guarantee, plus free email support!

For the safety of our animals, we only ship live fish, crabs, and select other inverts exclusively via UPS 1 Day Air.  If your order contains this item, you will only see UPS 1 Day Air as a shipping option during checkout. If other items are in your cart that can ship with  2 day or standard shipping options the only shipping method you can still select is UPS 1 Day Air. 

UPS 1 Day is a description of the duration of time a shipment will spend in transit once it has been shipped. This does not guarantee the package will be shipped the same or next day from which the order was placed.

Shipping Schedule for this service

UPS 1 Day: Monday through Thursday
 

Current Handling Time:

1-9 business days

Here at Aquatic Arts, we consider the welfare of the live animals we are shipping to be of the foremost importance. This process is much more involved than simply creating a shipping label and affixing it to a box. Depending on the order, it takes from 4 to 7 people to complete this process properly. We check the weather conditions here where they fly out of the Indianapolis UPS facility and the destination for each shipment. We start early each morning and go through a multi-step process to have the day's shipments prepared in time for the UPS pickup. The volume of orders in our system also affects the processing time. Therefore our stated handling time is 1-9 business days. 

Shipping Rate

Pricing is by size of package needed to fill entire order and distance it must travel. It will be calculated at checkout.

 

 

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