public schools?

smiffertins · Post by **smiffertins** » 07 Feb 2006, 15:44

Yesterday I went to my LFS to get some Pictus catfish, which I've wanted for a while... ok, ok, so I really like the big funky whiskers (yeah yeah barbels, I know)... anyways, Rod, the owner, said he still didn't have any in yet. Well, "I should have some on Thursday," is what he really said which is something I've heard every Monday for at least 8 weeks.

As I strolled through the isles, I came across some Three Striped African Glass Catfish, and I usually won't take a fish home without some solid research and confidence in its suitability for my tank, but I got three of them on an impulse buy. Getting (slowly) to my point, when I put them in my tank they immediately joined a school of 5 zebra danios and at times i saw the school split into, like, 2 cats + 3 danios and 1 cat + 2 danios.

Maybe this is not strange to anyone else but I thought they'd probably segregate and stick with their own. I guess I have public school! hahaha!

On a side note, do you think I could still get some Pictus catfish? And if so will they join the public school, or segregate? I have a 40 gallon tank, and I do plan to go a bit bigger in the somewhat near future. I have:

3- dwarf platys (.5"/each)
5- zebra danios (<1"/each)
3- 3 Striped African Glass Catfish (1.5"/each)
1- common plec (4.5")
1- clown plec (2"...although I almost NEVER see him!)

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MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 07 Feb 2006, 16:05

I certainly know from experience that different species of fish will school together. Not all speceis and at all times of course...

As to keeping with your mix of fish, I would recommend "no" to that - simply because the Pictus cat will eat your small fish. Maybe not immediately, but at some point your Zebra danios will disappear. [Actually, Zebra danios MAY be OK, as long as they keep staying at the top of the tank...]

Once you get another tank, I'd suggest you get some Pictus cat and keep them together with some larger fish - essentially, Pictus cats should never be kept with any fish that "fits in its mouth", because it's very likely that it will end up there eventually.

I'm sorta happy that you didn't get any, since it would probably have meant that your other fish would start disappearing... On the other hand, I don't see why they should be hard to get... Over here, there's rarely a shop that doesn't have them in stock - finding "big" ones is a bit harder, but can be done. On the other hand, small ones grow fairly quickly.

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Mats

smiffertins · Post by **smiffertins** » 07 Feb 2006, 18:37

Well, I'm very finicky about choosing fish (except for my impulse yesterday, but sounds like it was for the better!) so I don't go to LFS's that have unqualified/untrained/uneducated staff, poor quality fish, give me a bad vibe, ect, ect, ect. There are a couple of other stores here I know have Pictus in stock, but, well, to put it simply, "erghh!" It would have taken me an hour to feel like I chose healthy, quality specimens, then another hour while some kid who hadn't a clue what he was doing tried to catch the fish I wanted out of the bunch... you know?

Thanks MatsP!! I'll definitely hold off on the Pictus...Well, at least until I'm tired of the Danios. Muahahaha!

Off the topic a little, my boyfriend used to have a reef tank and although he likes our fish and tank now he's gotten noticeably bored without the diversity of colors and species in his old tank. I told him the neon colors he'd have to learn to live without, but that I'd research a little bit and try to find some other types of "critters and/or creatures" that would live happily in our tank... Any ideas??

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 08 Feb 2006, 10:37

I know exactly what you mean by being picky with both the staff and fish - I go to several shops now and again, but there's only three or four of them that I actually buy fish from, and only one that I "trust" to do good fish all the time.

There's some colourfull ones in the Malawi/Tang. cichlids - but they are a speciality range - best kept under certain conditions, etc, etc.

There are also plenty of quite colourfull pleco's - most notably the Gold Nuggets and a plethora of Black with White spots in various sizes, as well as plenty of light-brown with dark lines/spots. But I guess there's no "Clown fish" - Clown Botia is not that far off tho'.

Other obvious choices are Rainbow-fish - they may not be "neon colours", but they are quite pretty colours on many of them.

Neons/Cardinals in a big bunch are also very nice.

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Mats

smiffertins · Post by **smiffertins** » 08 Feb 2006, 13:33

Ha ha! I knew I wasn't a freak... My friends say something must be wrong with me because they don't understand how I could spend time (sometimes quite a while) looking at fish in a store I have no intentions of purchasing from. I tell 'em "hey, I'm an addict. Find me a fish or pet addict recovery program or treatment and I'll join. Until then, hush-up!!" I guess you may be in need of program, too; Yay I'm not alone! LOL

I asked Simon, my bf, to specify his boredom with our tank. He said, "It's too exclusive and repetitive. It's just fish. They're cool fish and everything, but there's no variation." and I said, "Uhhh, (long pause) that's kinda the idea babe. It's a FISH tank. What'd you expect to see in it- the water, the fish, maybe a hamster crawling around at the bottom fighting over a carrot with the squirrel that lives in the driftwood?" He responded, "No Einstein, but some nature in a natural style tank wouldn't hurt. Like the reef tank. It wasn't just fish. It was all kinds of different inhabitants you'd normally find in a reef."
He does have a point... some other little critters who might naturally share my fish's habitat would bring a lot of excitement and diversity to the tank. The tank would 'come to life'.

Ehhheim... Oh Critters? Come out, come out wherever you are!!
Ok, any ideas? PLEASE?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 08 Feb 2006, 13:48

Hi, my name is Mats, and I'm a fishoholic[1]

Well, I keep lots of plants in my tanks - other than that I have only un-invited snails.

Most "critters" are hard to keep in a community tank - like crabs/lobster/crayfish tend to eat the other inhabitants. Snails are OK, so long as you don't have too many of them - try to find a species that don't reproduce like crazy. I think some sorts of shrimps may work too - there's some that are quite colourfull, I think - I haven't kept any, so don't quite know.

On the other hand, there's nowt wrong with a reef tank either - except keeping catfish in them is difficult if you also want somehting else in there - marine catfish are pretty good eaters...

[1] Excuses to Barbie for borrowing her word...

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Mats

smiffertins · Post by **smiffertins** » 08 Feb 2006, 14:18

Hmmmm, plants you say? That might just be what I need to get simon to see his well-sought-after diversity in the tank... yeah, I'll trick him with plants! Thanks so much Mats! youre great! Plus, you now know a little about me personally... what I mean is, some of my friends call me Tangey (like tan- JEE) and I once had a teacher who called me Elmer Phudd. Explaination: The Tangey nickname I got because I cant ever stick to a single topic. Im always "going off on a TANGENT" my friends say. As for my former teacher calling me Elmer Phudd, he said I always ended up steering discussion off onto rabbit trails, rather than sticking to the subject at hand; just like the little hunting guy with the speach impediment in the Warner Bros cartoons. He's always out on trail looking for Bugs Bunny, or as he'd say "I'm huntine fo wabbits"
So lets see, I decided to go with plants, right? Wait, wait, wait, I thought this thread was called public school, or something, right? heehee

Thanks again for ALL of your time and answers! I really do appreciate it!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 08 Feb 2006, 14:42

"real" plants are very nice.

Here's what my big tank looked like half a year back.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/albu ... ?pic_id=87

It's quite differnet now, as I've added more bits of wood, re-arranged some of the broken pottery and got some different plants - but it's not too different. Should take another shot of it, really...

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Mats

smiffertins · Post by **smiffertins** » 09 Feb 2006, 01:20

Wow, that looks really nice! How big is that tank?

I saw this picture at aquahobby.com in the garden section as an example of dwarf hairgrass...

How cool, its like a fishie lawn! Do you have any idea if that would work with the fish I have in my tank? Not necessarily for the entire bottom but maybe in a section of the bottom?

p.s. Is it wrong to put someone elses copyrighted pic in my post the way I did? If so, Im sorry!!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 09 Feb 2006, 09:25

smiffertins wrote:Wow, that looks really nice! How big is that tank?

I saw this picture at aquahobby.com in the garden section as an example of dwarf hairgrass...

How cool, its like a fishie lawn! Do you have any idea if that would work with the fish I have in my tank? Not necessarily for the entire bottom but maybe in a section of the bottom?

p.s. Is it wrong to put someone elses copyrighted pic in my post the way I did? If so, Im sorry!!

The tank is around 100 US gallon, it's a RIO 400, 5ft x 20" x 24" (L x W x H).

My wife got hairgrass in her tank. It doesn't look like a lawn, more like a miniature bamboo clump, but it's a nice plant. I don't see any reason why you couldn't have that with the fishies in your tank - none of them are likely to chew on plants very much.

For some reason, I couldn't see the picture in the post, but when I copy'n'pasted it to another browser it worked out... And no, you're not really supposed to link in other peoples pictures...

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Mats

smiffertins · Post by **smiffertins** » 09 Feb 2006, 11:25

woah your big tank is a BIG TANK!

Thanks for the tip on the pic copying... I thought maybe it would be ok since I wasn't "claiming it" as my own, and it had the location found with the copyright symbol w/ the name of the owner. But, Im glad to know the "rules"! Honestlty, until I read another persons post about pictures copyrights being "infringed" I never had a clue it would piss people off!! oopsies!

On a side note (or tangent

), how would I post a pic so it would actually be viewed? When I put it in my post and hit preview it showed the pic as it was supposed to...? (damned computers! gotta be so friggin technical all the time!)

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 09 Feb 2006, 11:33

Well, it works on my machine now - bit in the original post and the quoted bit in my reply - don't know what the difference is.

The photo has a (C)opyright in it, so I guess that's at least showing who took it.

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Mats

smiffertins · Post by **smiffertins** » 09 Feb 2006, 12:15

so just a slap on the wrist instead off the cuffs, maybe?