[youtube width=”680″ height=”400″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LGcv-HEmSA[/youtube]
There is something about the look of a juvenile pinnatus batfish which is both fascinating, unreal and irresistable. The bold orange stripe that encircles the perimeter of the juvenile batfish and bissects its symmetry is somewhat akin to the appearance of the juvenile red-tail catfish, Phractocephalus hemioliopterus, and we fear that this irresistible appearance and behavior may portend the next big wave in unwanted overgrown fish.
In the 90s the red tail catfish was available everywhere and countless people bought this small fish which quickly outgrew their aquariums. Granted the pinnatus batfish is being captive raised so the new demand will not be on wild stocks and marine aquariums are usually much larger than freshwater ones. Still, there’s probably plenty of these captive bred pinnatus batfish sitting at marine life wholesalers right now, and in a couple years we will almost certainly see a large crop of large pinnatus batfish looking for new larger aquariums.
