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Just picked one of these chubby litte guys up, they were labled as jaguar catfish but they are clearly not(although I will get a pic up just in case).How predatory are they cos he went into my planted tank, theres some neons in there but im not that bothered if he eats them.My rams on the other hand I wouldnt be so happy about losing.What do you think, are my rams safe?What about khuli loaches?

Thanks!

As far as predatory behaviour, these shouldn't be a problem.

One thing though. The T. perugea do much better in slightly to moderately hard water.

Not your typical conditions in a planted tank!

T wrote:What do you think, are my rams safe?What about khuli loaches?

Don't worry T. Except for baby live bearers every fish is safe with Tatia perugiae. Was there only one specimen?
If there were more, you could easily pick out a pair. See picture section of this fish in the Cat-eLog for the difference in gender.

I would suggest reading this.

Thanks for the info my ph is about 6.8 will that be a problem?Its a planted tank but only with java fern and anubius and there is a decent current.I didnt realise it was a surface dweller which explains why it swam about the surface after leaving the bag(had me a bit worried).Oh and its a male going by the anal fin.I might swing past the shop next week and pick up a female, they had about another half dozen.

Thanks for the info!!

I think oil catfish are rather hard to find. You may want to purchase a group and see if you can spawn them.
Your pH should be fine for the catfish but I'm not much of a plant expert.

I would keep a stable pH over trying to make it specific and having it adjust.

power heads pointed at the surface help.

Here is the little guy, I cant afford to buy a group but I will probably get him a female.

Here is his home.

Thats a heck of a tank!

Thanks man I hope he will be happy in there.

Ok last night after lights out I sneaked a quick look and he was swimming madly around the surface then when he saw me he swam to the bottom and just sat there, is this normal.I'm sure my corys were giving him funny looks

Thats very normal. If you want a real show, try frozen bloodworm, mine go nuts for it. I usually leave a very dim light on in the room after I feed them and sit and watch the show. I have one bold little one that will come out even in bright daylight for bloodworm though.

Well that settles it I will get him a friend

Whats my chances of breeding them(bearing in mind my bristlenoses in there wont even breed...only thing that does is trumpet snails).

Oh and will they eat trumpet snails, please say yes

Sorry, very few fish can eat trumpetsnails, and most that do have issues....
size (cichlids, doradids), agression (cichlids, puffers, loaches), finpickery (puffers, loaches), different needs in waterparameters (Riftlake cichlids, brackish puffers), highly social (so you need to buy a group; loaches) etc.

no usual-sized (1-5") aquariumfish can tackle adult trumpetsnails. their extremely tough shell and the operculum (the lid) make them immune to attacks by those....
the way to go at them is by killing off the tiny babies. these aren't as tough as the halfgrowns or adults.

the best trumpetsnail-killer that actually:
-behaves peacefully
-is not hard to keep
-is easy to get (!, some highly useful fish just don't get in the trade)
-is cheap!

is Botia striata. the Striped Loach.


DON'T get sidetracked by buying another species like B geto, B dario, B almorhae (old name B lohachata; Yoyo Loach), B macracantha, B morlei (old name B horae; Skunk Loach) or whatever meets your eye...ALL of these have issues!
the Yoyo-loach is extremely lazy (so are B geto, B eos, B dario etc), the Clownloach reaches 1 foot in length (a shoaler...1 foot...imagine tanksize for 7 of these), the Mouse- or Skunkloach is a very nasty finpicking terrorist that can and does harass sleeping Tatia's......

and remember, B striata too is a highly social fish, but it needs to chase a bit too; 4 is NOT a group! you need 6-7 or so, then you have a highly visible and active pretty in your tank and NO trumpetsnails.

There's only 1 supplement, but it's expensive; and this one should be kept in groups of 10 or a dozen or more:
the famous Dwarfloach, Botia sidtimunki.

highly threathened/extinct in the wild due to habitatdestruction, but commercially bred for the trade in limited numbers.
buying a proper shoal of these will eat your wallet empty

I actually seen Botia sidtimunki latelty and in great condition but sooo expensive.Nah i'll just leave it, what I do is wait till the lights have been off for an hour or so and go down and harvest the trumpets.They then go into my big tank where my 6 big clowns have a field day The trumpets are not too much of a problem just now plus they keep my sand nice and stirred up.

Hi T

Thats a nice tank you've got there. I was jut wondering where abouts you got the Tatia perugiae. I've been trying to get a hold of any kind of Tatia for a while, They are great little catfish.

I've already got a couple of Tatia creutzbergi and a couple of Liosomadoras oncinus.

Gordon

Rocket wrote:Hi T

Thats a nice tank you've got there. I was jut wondering where abouts you got the Tatia perugiae. I've been trying to get a hold of any kind of Tatia for a while, They are great little catfish.

I've already got a couple of Tatia creutzbergi and a couple of Liosomadoras oncinus.

Gordon

In a shop called "The Aquarium" its in the saltmarket beside Terry Tattoos.

Thanks

I think i'll go down and take a look at them.
I meant to ask, what did you paid for them?

Gordon

Leave me a female please

I paid 7.50 for him and there was about another half dozen in the tank.I know the owner quite well cos I used to work there on the weekends when I was like 16 so I can get him to get more in.

Oh i don't know I may just grab the lot with both hands and run!!

I'll head down on wednesday and check them out, I've got a spare 40gal that they would look quite nice in!

Gordon

I'm gonna go in on wed too, look for a guy with spikey brown hair and green jacket with a furry hood

Btw he was out again tonight and I was a bit concerned cos he looked a tad skinny so I got one of my nets that has mesh that bloodworms can fall through and sat it so it dipped in the tank at the surface and dropped a frozen bloodworm cube in.There was just enough light from my kitchen to see in the tank and the little booger came out dashing madly about the surface.It took him a few minutes to locate the bloodworms but once he did he was like a great white shark ripping into a big chunk of bait.Wasnt long before he was tubby again

No way I was holding a bloodworm cube in the tank and mt SAE's were at the top nibbling away as usual when suddenly the little oil cat appeared and munched into the cube until he was really fat then dissapeared again.This was in the middle of the day with the lights on too

if you were closer, I'd lone you my baby common goldfish.. he inhales my trumpets... he sits and waits till they are crawling up the side and sucks them out of the shell.. very entertaining

magickzzl wrote:if you were closer, I'd lone you my baby common goldfish.. he inhales my trumpets... he sits and waits till they are crawling up the side and sucks them out of the shell.. very entertaining

I have started turning the lights off a bit earlier and after an hour or so grabbing all the trumpet snails that have come out and feeding them to my clown loaches in my big tank they love them