PlanetCatfish.com

Hello to all,
I have finally reached the point of my fishless cycle that I can start introducing some fish. I have found so much great info on this site, actually so much that I am still a bit lost. I've allways been a big catfish fan. Suggestions were made to me to do some cats and some chiclids. I would like to know if anyone here has a tank populated with just catfish? I don't want to have a tank filled with bottom feeders though.
FYI the tank is 72"x24"x24". 2 250W heaters, and 2 800GPH pumps.
Thank you in advance
Here is a picture.......

These are some of my personal favorites. Platydoras costatus(striped talking cat), Agamyxis pectinifrons(spotted talking cat), Pimelodus blochii(pictus cat), Baryancistrus Sp.(L081)(gold nugget), Baryancistrus Sp.(L177)(gold nugget) I keep all of these fish in a 220 gallon tank along with 5 large tinfoil barbs and some Silver dollars and all seem to get along fine.
Nice looking tank! I like the blue moon light. I just got one this week and love the way it looks!

You can have c*chlids with catfish, but try to avoid mixing african fish with south americans - the c*chlids from Africa are particularly bad to mix with South American catfish.

I'm a great fan of Eeatheaters - Geophagine c*chlids. They dig a lot in the substrate, but not in the "constructive" way that many other c*chlids dig, rather just grabbing a mouth-full of substrate and chew through it to get the edibles out of it. And they are reasonably sedate and un-aggressive to other fish. Most of these are "group" fish, so you want to have 6-8 of them. Many grow quite big - 8-10" is not unlikely - but that's fine in your tank-size.

Other ideas would be some form of larger Tetras. There's loads to choose from - Buones Aires, Emperor, Blue, Red Eye, Diamond, etc, etc.

If you're not particularly concerned about which part of the world your fish originates from, you could also mix in Rainbow fish. They are nice-looking (fairly bright colours), active swimmers, and relatively easy to keep happy, as long as you have a decent group of them (5-6 at least). Excellent "dithers".

All the above can be kept in the same tank at the same tank, assuming you don't have TOO many of the catfish - something that may be harder to do...

--
Mats

You can have c*chlids with catfish, but try to avoid mixing african fish with south americans - the c*chlids from Africa are particularly bad to mix with South American catfish

Only if you equate "African" with "Rift cichlids" (read: Malawi's or Tanganyikans).

the smaller riverine species of Afrika (so not including large Hemichromis or any Tilapine species) are perfectly suitable for combinations with South American catfishes.
genera like Pelvicachromis, Nanochromis, small Hemichromis, Chromidotilapia, anomalochromis, Thysia, Steatocranus and the like do fine with SA cats when the tank has room for everyone.
wich is the case here. big tank.

unlike some of the other posters however, I really gross out on the light , it's like looking at a disco, not an aquarium.
it also can cause stress to non-nocturnal fish! fish-eyes of diurnal fish are developed to see in a daylight spectrum; not something like a blacklighted discotheque or spaceship. if you want to see the natural coloration of the fish and want them to be at peace in the tank, best use lights like Gro-Lux, True-Lite (perfect daylight spectrum), some Zoo-meds made for planted tanks, Dennerle etc etc.

Pimelodus blochii(pictus cat)

......Pimelodus Pictus (Pictus Cat)
Pimelodus Ornatus (Ornate Pim)

I would go for some impressive Nocturnal Cats, i would lean towards the Zamora Woodcat, its a bizzare catfish, which i believe would actively shoal, if you had more!! it doesnt grow that big, so you get get a few

pictus_man_77 wrote: i would lean towards the Zamora Woodcat, its a bizzare catfish, which i believe would actively shoal

I have to disappoint you here; very few Auchenipterids shoal. They are very good at actively hide, however.
The only one I had that showed something like shoaling behaviour was Pseudauchenipterus nodosus, which were also little afraid of daylight. To my regret I haven't seen those in the trade for ages.
With regard to the light: as stated above, some freshwater fish don't like it. I think it should be used in seawater tanks. When I tried it, my characins almost leapt through the windows for fear. Not that they were normally very brave, but 25 Metynnis going completely crazy ended my blue light experiment within 5 minutes......