SE Asian catfish question

[armed2teeth]

I am in the planning stages... I have a 210 gallon that will house my 8 large clown loaches. I want to make this a fairly strict SE Asian tank. My current list is going to look something like this...
8+ clowns
6 garra flavatra
20-30 tiger barbs

My question is, what kind of community and preferably diurnal catfish should I put in the tank? I was thinking a school of class cats but want to explore my options. I figured this would be the place to ask.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Silurus]

Diurnal catfishes (or at least something that is not hiding much during the day) are not common. One possibility is

Hyalobagrus flavus

, but tiger barbs are too robust and rowdy tankmates (six-banded barbs might make better tankmates for these). Another species you might see during the day would be

Pseudeutropius brachypopterus

, but these would need quite a bit of swimming space.
If all else fails, try one of the smaller bumblebee cat species, such as

Pseudomystus leiacanthus

. Unfortunately, this species is not easily available in the trade and I've only seen it as contaminants in shipments of

Pseudomystus heokhuii

.

[armed2teeth]

Thanks for the info silurus.
Can you or anyone else recomend liturature that could run through a list of asian cats?

Thanks again.

[Silurus]

Try Kottelat et al.'s book on freshwater fishes of western Indonesia or Kottelat's book on the fishes of Laos.

I don't think you'll find much more than what I suggested, though.

[armed2teeth]

Hmmmn. Not as many options as I thought. I think the Pseudeutropius brachypopterus and Hyalobagrus flavus would get thrown around in the wake of the clowns. I'm running through the list of fish from the same areas right now. Is there anything nocturnal that might fit the bill.

I want the clowns to be the biggest fish in the tank. My biggest one is about 8 inches. With the garra, some sort of "dither" schooling fish, and a catfish I think it may be a nicely rounded population.

Thanks again for the help. This should end up being a cool tank. I just got some halogen track lighting that I'm going to spot light different parts of the tank to create shadowing.

Jeff

[Silurus]

If you select some slightly bigger barbs, you might be able to use a very small group of

Mystus castaneus

.

[armed2teeth]

I think the Tiger Barbs are out. I may got with a school of rasboras instead, like the asian rummy nose. It could be spendy though.

I'm tempted to widen my locale. Maybe incorporate India.
Clowns
roseline sharks
garra flavatra
Hara jardoni
asian rummynose rasboras

Any other suggestions?

[racoll]

How about

Mystus bimaculatus

You don't see these around all that often anymore, but if memory serves me correctly, they aren't too secretive.

[racoll]

Batasio affinis

could be an idea. Jools noted in the cat-elog that "This fish is relatively active during the day and always present during feeding."

A south east Asian

Ompok

might also work. Never kept one, but providing the lighting isn't too intense you should see them.

I guess the problem will be keeping relatively shy catfishes well fed with a group of greedy clown loach!

[Silurus]

How about

Mystus bimaculatus

The pH of the proposed setup is a bit high for these.

[Silurus]

Hara jardoni

These are a bit small.

Hara filamentosa

might be a better bet. Or, if you are up for the challenge, a school of

Gagata

.

[armed2teeth]

Silurus, I see your point with the hara's getting enough food. Might be worth a shot to "spot feed", if I can obtain any. They would stay out of the clowns way.

Racoll, I thought about the bimac's but noticed the black water swamp thing. The Batasio don't do it for me though. The ompok would be pretty cool if I could find any in Oregon.

The Gagata cenia, THAT looks cool! Although obtaining them might be a problem. Also, the clowns might be too big for them. It would make a great school.

Gagata dolichonema would also be great and it's SE Asian too.
Are they imported into the US?