If a fish can fit in the mouth of another ... it will.. That is important to remember with potential catfish. Aggression is not so much the deal, as predation. Catfish which are peaceful by day but have large mouths, will account for a lot of mystery disappearances over night. Also a lot of little, tiny 1-2 inch catfish will grow to be huge predators.
Angelfish will feed on bite-sided fish (and choke to death on tiny catfish which get lodged in their throats.) While they will bully discus, get territorial when spawning and force everybody into the other side of that 40 gallon tank, and devour vast numbers of tetras and livebearers, as cichlids go, they are very shy and non-aggressive. (That because I can't spell wuse.)
Aequidens rivulatus is not called the Green Terror for no reason. Nor is "Cichlasoma" festae the red terror for no reason.
So if you see something neat in the tank, write its name down for future reference.
Then ask the shop person:
What do they eat?
How big do they get?
When do they feed?
Do they need companion fish of the same species?
How dangerous is getting "spined" by one of them.
(The Fossil catfish is pretty toxic)
What temperatures will they thrive at?
What part of the world are they from?
(Every now and then channel cats or bullheads get snuck in. They will whip their weight in mbuna.)
Take what you learned from the LFS and check with every book in the library, a Google search and any fishy mentor you have.
There are 1000s of catfish. Everyone will have to look up some.
Some useful sites:
http://www.corydorasworld.com/
http://www.planetcatfish.com/
http://community.compuserve.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ws-fishnet&nav=messages&tid=28359&tsn=1
The above is an account of Darrell Ullisch's visit to the first catfish hobby show in the US in many years.
on AquaRank, click on their catfish site list and see what is useful.
All the best!
unc;e
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