Veggies for the bottom feeder

seds · Post by **seds** » 21 Oct 2006, 06:22

I have a beeee atiful 70 gallon tank with loads of plants, a crayfish, tinfoil barbs and catfish. What sorts of fresh foods do you put in? I put in melon, and that went over well, lettuce did not (it doesnt sink) and cooked chicken poisoned my poor (now dead) crayfish. What food do you put in that wont cause problems?

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 21 Oct 2006, 19:59

How do your Tinfoils get along with plants? Just curious. <a href='http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... cle_id=294' target='_blank'>Here</a> is an article by Mats on the different foods Loricariid catfish eat. I hope this helps you.

Amanda

seds · Post by **seds** » 22 Oct 2006, 05:20

they are plastic... is that dissapointing?

I tried to feed a tinfoil a pea, but he ignored it. The cray loves them!

seds · Post by **seds** » 22 Oct 2006, 05:21

Oh yeah, and the cats I have are glass catfish, shark catfish, and upside downs

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 22 Oct 2006, 15:34

seds wrote:they are plastic... is that dissapointing?

I tried to feed a tinfoil a pea, but he ignored it. The cray loves them!

Not at all. I'd be worried if you had real plants with Tinfoils. Your plants would most likely be eaten.

It may take much trial and error to get your fish to eat. In fact, some of your fish may be omnivorous or carnivorous. You should look them up in the Cat-eLog to see what they eat. You might be surprised at their diets.

Amanda

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 23 Oct 2006, 09:38

I wouldn't use chicken. Very carefully, for the right fish and crustaceans, you could use beef - but that is with a lot of care and knowledge of what you're doing.

Tinfoil barbs will probably eat lettuce you put a spoon/fork or tie it (rubberbands work well) to a stone so that it sinks. That method works well for most types of food that doesn't sink by itself. Spinach is another "leaf" vegetable that may work well.

Shark catfish = of some sort? They grow VERY large [not that tinfoils are exactly "small" fish].

Upside down catfish come on two varieties - Synodontis and an asian variety that I think is of the Mystus genus. Make sure you check out which one you've got. [They are both listed as "upside down" catfish in the Common names list, with the non-Synodontis version beinc called "False upside down catfish", I believe].

--
Mats

seds · Post by **seds** » 24 Oct 2006, 03:56

No actually the shark catfish are Columbian sharks. How salty does the water need to be? I moved the tinfoil barbs; they are too agressive feeders. Right now there is some goldfishes, we'll see how that works out. the upside down cats are real synodontis something from africa, the congo backswimmers.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 24 Oct 2006, 10:36

on "Other parameters":

Salt should be added in relation to the age of the fish. The older the fish, the more salt, right up to 100% marine. The fish is very tolerate of changes of salinity and will live in freshwater happily as a young fish.

As an older fish it will need quite salty water, more than what you'd expect any non-salt-water living fish to tolerate., although you may not need to go all the way to marine. These fish have natural behaviour similar to Salmon - they breed in freshwater rivers, and the juvenile fish will migrate towards the sea, and eventually will live in a marine environment - however, they are not particularly good "community" marine inhabitants, so don't expect them to go well together with "Nemo" in your reef-tank...

Congo backswimmer isn't a name recognised by the Cat-eLog - any chance you can come up with a scientific name?

--
Mats

costatus7 · Post by **costatus7** » 24 Oct 2006, 11:57

Hello

In reply to feeding, i have wild severums in my tank with limas and plecs, severums like tinfoils are plant destroyers but i use tough plants like anubias and java fern i also have an african lilly that flowers at the surface, severums and tinfoil barbs are hole punchers to a planted tank but i find if you offer a more attractive alternative in the tank you can still have a planted tank, i use lettuce leaves, my severums are more interseted in its soft leaves than the aquatic plants i have in the tank thus maintaining healthy palnts that only get nipped every so often and have time to repair.

ben

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MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 24 Oct 2006, 12:17

costatus7 wrote:Hello

In reply to feeding, i have wild severums in my tank with limas and plecs, severums like tinfoils are plant destroyers but i use tough plants like anubias and java fern i also have an african lilly that flowers at the surface, severums and tinfoil barbs are hole punchers to a planted tank but i find if you offer a more attractive alternative in the tank you can still have a planted tank, i use lettuce leaves, my severums are more interseted in its soft leaves than the aquatic plants i have in the tank thus maintaining healthy palnts that only get nipped every so often and have time to repair.

ben

Indeed - just like us humans, fish go for the "easy target" before they go for the more difficult ones... So offering something "better" than the plants will help.

--
Mats

seds · Post by **seds** » 25 Oct 2006, 03:30

It's a Synodontis nigriventris. Look it up on google if you're not sure which kind of upside down cat it is. It looks like he has white spots in a grid on him, like a ritz cracker LOL.[/b]

seds · Post by **seds** » 25 Oct 2006, 03:48

It's a Synodontis nigriventris. Look it up on google if you're not sure which kind of upside down cat it is. It looks like he has white spots in a grid on him, like a ritz cracker LOL.[/b]

Veggies for the bottom feeder

Veggies for the bottom feeder

congo backswimmer...

congo backswimmer...