PlanetCatfish.com

Hey there,,I'm a newbie to the board so bear with me.

I've had a Tandanus catfish for about four years now in a coldwater 2ft tank. He was initially put in with some other fancy chinese goldfish and seemed to be quite ok with them although I suspect a bit of chasing went on when the lights went out!! I lost some of those originals a year after I put Felix (my cattie) in and have had NO luck in any others being able to last with him. I had never seen him actually attack any of them until I stupidly put some in that were smaller than his mouth and had them "dissappear" and their carcasses turn up a day later. I decided to try a large gold fish and he did have a few snaps at him till he realised that it was not gonna be able to eat him. Unfortunately the goldie never quite recovered from the first few days. Should I just accept that he is a loner? or are there some species better suited to him?

I kind of had trouble believing he could be predatory cos he seems so placid until the day I bought one of thsoe old clam shells which open up to release a bubble. He had a great time lying at the bottom of the tank and then chasing the bubbles. I couldnt believe how quick he was!! He even got it down to such a fine art that he knew the timing to attack the minute it opened ad got so fast that he could get into the clam and eve have it close on him!

Any feedback would be great!

<i>Tandanus</i>, like almost all other catfishes, are predatory. If it fits in the mouth, it'll be eaten. While they are usually peaceful towards large tankmates, it sounds like the aggression is most likely due to the small confines of the 2-foot tank. <i>Tandanus</i> (I am presuming you have the common <i>T. tandanus</i>) can reach up to 90cm (3 feet) in length and a 2-foot tank is inadequate long-term housing.
It's also probably not a good idea to add new fish to the tank unless you rearrange the driftwood/rocks in there. The catfish will probably treat the new fish as intruders and not treat them kindly. Rearranging things will level the playing field.