red whiptail catfish - (Hemiloricaria sp. (L10a))

[RisingSun]

hi everyone,
I have a question about this lovely fish.
I hope I'm writing this in the right part of the forum, if not, I'm sorry.
anyway, I saw this fish in one of my local fish shops and I really like it. I have looked on the internet to find some information on it, but so far I haven't really found much.
I was wondering wether it would be suitable for my tank.
I have a 200Litre tank, with external filter. I have about one inch of roman gravel in, some bogwood, one ornament ship which my male bristlenose lives in. it is well planted, including some big leaved plants.
I keep the temperature at about 25-26 C. the ammonia is 0, the nitrite is 0 and the nitate is kept as low as possible. last messurment was about 5. pH is 7.
my tank at the moment houses 2 adult bristlenoses (common), 2 juvenile L182 golddust bristlenoses, 2 baby (1inch long) common bristlenoses, 3 bronze cories, 3 albino cories, 3 peppered cories and one betta splendens (siamese fighting fish). and probably the odd little baby common bristlenose which have escaped from the net when I tried to catch and move all the babies to a growing out tank.
my bronze cories are also breeding at the moment.
well, my question is, would a couple of the red whiptail catfish fit into my tank? what are they like to keep? has anyone got these in their tank and could maybe give me some advice?
thank you for reading this, sorry it's a bit long.
anyway thanks again for any advice or recommendations, Marion

[sunfish]

Hi Marion,

these are really nice fish, I too have 3 in a 200l tank. If you're looking for information try "Leliella spec. Red". Apart from the fact that you already have quite a lot of bottom dwellers in your tank everything looks OK for the L10a.

A peaceful fish that is fairly easy to keep. You need to provide suitable caves (tubes, ~1.5 times longer than the fish and open on both sides). They are omnivores and will eat frozen food, flakes, wafers and fresh veggies. Chances are that you are gonna get hybrids between genuine Leliella spec. Red and Hemiloricaria lanceolata. At least over here it's usually hybrids in the shops.

When you say "couple" do you mean a male and a female or just a few? They have to be fairly big before you can reliably tell males and females apart. So if you want to be sure to have both and the ones offered are not fully grown you might want to get a group.

[Lihn]

Hi Marion

I am sorry about my bad english, but I hope you understand.

I have 6 of this wonderfull fish. 1 male and 2 females in a 54 litre (these are sometimes spawning) and 2 males and 1 female in another tank. The fish in the other tank are not spawning. Over the summer they had made about 100 youngs.
I did not do some special for them up to spawning, but I remembered to feed them with a lot of food with protein.
L010a can go together with your other fishes. I think your temperature is good for them. As Sunfish says they like some tubes to lay eggs in. My tubes are made of clay, and they are about 17-18 centimetre long and about 2,5 centimetre in diameter.

Good luck with the fish!

[RisingSun]

hi everyone, thank's for your replies.
well I went back to the lfs and I got myself one red whiptail catfish! he/she/it is absolutelly gorgeous! what a beautiful fish! it's about 2 inches long. I'm going to get a second one next week. as gorgeous as they are, they are quite expensive I think. I paid 12 pounds for mine.

anyway, at the moment he is in a quarantine tank but hopefully he will be moving into the 200Litre tank soon!
my fiance and I have decided to name it Rusty! could be both male or female!!

anyway, thanks alot again and I hope I'll have lots of fun with this lovely fish, Marion