Humbug Catfish. . . Does He Eat My Fish At Night???

eurospage · Post by **eurospage** » 14 Nov 2006, 22:51

Hello everyone, i have two humbug catfish. i bought them when they were about 2inches and they are about 4/5inches now withing a few months. Lately though i had a honey gourami go missing and a dwarf neon rainbow fish this was an adult and by no means small. They go missing at night so i can only put it down to these catfish. Has anyone else had these problems before and is there any chance or stopping him eating them. I never see them during the day. They just hide beneath the wood but i do drop food in before i go to bed but what else could i do.

P.S. They are my best fish though. One more thing they dont bother the smaller fish like guppies and neon tetras though. Is this strange???

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 15 Nov 2006, 09:07

I assume your humbug catfish is one of these.....

They aren't out and out predators, but they will gobble up any fish that they can fit in their mouth if the fish aren't quick enough to get out of the way.

How big was the honey gourami and the rainbow fish? I couldn't imagine they would fit in its mouth, or that the humbug would bother.

It seems odd that it didn't eat the neons, as these seem like much easier targets. If I remember rightly, neons "sleep" on the bottom, while most gouramis "sleep" on the surface.

I keep a 7" humbug with 1" Otocinclus, and the otos are fine.

I would be very surprised if the humbug was the culprit, but you never know.

Have you tested your water recently for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH?

What other fish are in the tank?

eurospage · Post by **eurospage** » 15 Nov 2006, 09:22

hiya all the levels are 0 and the ph is around 7.2. the honey gourami was about 1inch and the neon rainbow fish was 1 1/2 inch. In my tank i have one pleco, 1 clown pleco, 4 guppies, 8 neons, 3 platys (one went missing last night???) 2 peperred corys, 3 neon rainbow fish, 2 apple snails, 2 singapore mountain shrimp and 1 sucking loach ( i was sold this as a baby and a community fish but im going to get rid as its quite big and getting nasty). So am not sure what could be happening to these fish. what do you think?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 15 Nov 2006, 09:49

"All the levels are 0" - that's not right. You should have at least some reading on nitrate, or your test-kit is probably "broken". Both me and racoll has had that happen, so it's possible that you've got that too...

Also, if a fish dies and sinks to the bottom, any pleco-type fish will eat it, as well as sucking loach, no doubt about that.

--
Mats

eurospage · Post by **eurospage** » 15 Nov 2006, 10:05

Sorry the nitrate is about 40. Would the fish die overnight though even when they look fine last thing at night?

Post by **medaka** » 15 Nov 2006, 19:16

HI

i was sold this as a baby and a community fish but im going to get rid as its quite big and getting nasty)

This may be the culprit.

Sucking loaches as the grow tend to become a slight bit territorial and belligerent, and therefore unsuitable for a community tank,such as yours or similar, some fish can become stressed out when encountering this type of behaviour, which eventually effects their health and subsequently they die, as a direct result, of such behaviour.

Having kept and spawned both Colisa sota (honey gourami) and Melanotania praecox (neon dwarf rainbow) IMO, these have died of stress related illness.

and as matsp says

if a fish dies and sinks to the bottom, any pl*co-type fish will eat it, as well as sucking loach

Although 40mg/l of nitrate is not really ideal and therefore must not be discounted as a factor in their deaths, Colisa sota, should have been able to cope with the nitrate level.

eurospage · Post by **eurospage** » 15 Nov 2006, 21:01

Ok thank you for your help. I have now got rid of the sukcing loaches and got a few leopard cory's(lovely little things). Lets hope that the fish stop going awol.

costatus7 · Post by **costatus7** » 15 Nov 2006, 23:59

I have a large humbug and it used to be in with neon rainbows and eveything was fine, rainbows are far to fast for most fish, the humbugs not an agressive fish and dosnt really have a large mouth so i dont think it will bother much over 6cm.

ben