Fish picking

[Rhab]

Hey guys I need to choose a catfish or two for my Ctenolucius hujeta "Rocket Gar" tank. See they take frozen live food very greedily, unfortunately every now and again a bit will fall to the bottom of the tank and be ignored. As I don't care to reach down there to pull out the offending piece I was hoping you could suggest a mild mannered south american cat that would tidy up for me. I'm hoping for something with an oddball look.

Current set up is
90gal 48 x 18 x 18
planted with fine gravel

water;

````````````````````````````````````units````````` ``max```````min``````average
Alkalinity```````````````````````mg/L```````````87.8``````80.8 `````85.2
Conductivity``````````````````mhos/cm`````398```````280```````307
Hardness ( as CaCO3 )``mg/L```````````125```````116```````122
pH```````````````````````````````````````````````` ``7.9```````7.4`````````7.7
Total Solids```````````````````mg/L```````````198```````168```````180

Thanks in advance

Rhab

[wrasse]

Hujetas are superb fish.
I kept them several years ago and had jaguar cats and geophagus in with them, which worked well.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Having never kept rocket gars (false gar), I cannot advise with good confidence but just wanted to comment on you post: you really blew me away. So good to see someone out there keeping such an exemplary track of their water and caring to make such an outstanding post.

Of course, pH and temp would be nice to know too.

[Rhab]

Thanks, temp is 25C currently could go a bit higher if needed. They are easy undemanding fish that do not appreciated active aggressive fish. If stressed they turn into logs that haunt the top of the tank hiding in the weeds. When confident however they are a curious fish constantly patrolling the tank looking for prey and occasionally making dashes at possible targets. A very entertaining fish IMHO. They dominate the top and middle but the bottom is of no interest to them.

I'm not a big catfish keeper myself so I thought I would make an account and ask the experts. I'm a longtime lurker here but never really had questions before.

I was thinking a school of cory's but I think the gravel might be hard on their whiskers? Plus I'm thinking that this tank would be a nice time to stock one of those super shy, creepy looking cats that historically I have passed on because you never see them.

My hujeta ignore pellets so I could feed him whatever was required very easily, all I ask is that he clean up the odd bit of shrimp or Tilapia that hits the bottom of the tank. I feed my guys in the evening so the night shift would kick in right away.

Regards all,

[Rhab]

actually I may have solved my own problem. I might try a few Denticetopsis seducta. I know a store thats getting some.

[wrasse]

Your hujetas might see them as lunch.
Look for something bigger/ deeper-bodied. Maybe half a dozen Pim Pictus.

[Viktor Jarikov]

My corys had to live in tanks with big #1 (~1") and #2 (~2") gravel and pea gravel. They did fine.

Hoplos would do ok too, I'd imagine. Small woodcats. There are too many choices from my ignorant perspective: hujetas are slim, elegant, small false gars, so I'd try anything that they will not prey on - the length is not so relevant because they are so slim, so as Wrasse said - deeper/taller bodied small cats with 1/5-1/2 length of your rockets should do.

[Rhab]

Food for thought thanks guys. I have a few kuhli loaches running around in the tank and the hujeta never touch them, they just sort of watch them. Yet the loaches are small enough to eat, and the hujeta will run down and eat smaller fish very aggressively. I'm thinking that perhaps smaller dark skinned fish like Denticetopsis seducta might just survive. But your point is well taken. Hoplos, Pim Pictus both good ideas. I'm suddenly excited about the prospect of stoking catfish. Ah obsessively researching fish, half of why I love the hobby.

Thanks guys.