PlanetCatfish.com

i am new to the forum and am interested in adding a couple of cats to my existing tanks and have a couple of questions
1. what is the recommended tank size for chaca cats?
2. will they do well with large cichlids like oscars, frontasas, jaguars, and jack dempseys.( i currently have 4 lined cats in the tank with them with out issues)
3. how quickly will they drop the ph level of a 125g tank?
4. i am also considering jaguar cats, would this be a better choice than the chacas?

all info would be greatly appreciated

Hello & welcome to PC.
You might not like my answers on Q's 2 and 4 (which make Q's 1 & 3 obsolete).
Imo both cats are unsuitable for your set-up. Both like quiet environments, the Chaca for sure. It'll be disturbed and probably harrased by your Cichs. These will also be food competitors and because they are much faster the Chaca will eventually starve (if it hasn't been torn apart before....).
The Jaguar cat may look very fierce, but I don't give it much chance either in this setting for more or less the same reasons.

If you really want a Chaca I'd recommend a separate tank. And due to the fact that these fish don't swim much, I think an 80x40x40 cms (32x16x16 inches) would do nicely.

as far as the feeding issues that wouldnt be a problem, i hand feed all my fish so getting food to the cats wouldnt be a problem. nor would the size issue, i currently have 4 lined cats in with all my cichlids without any issues at all. they are all around 6 inches tl so now is my optimum time to introduce newer fish before the size margin grows. there are also plenty of hiding spots for them. i asure you i am not doubting your advise, just stating my observation with the current cats i have in there. the main thing is the ph drop. if a 125g will drop 1.5 ph in a week it could possibly kill all my cichlids which would be very bad lol. i also have a 300 gallon tank that i am going to be setting up so i can put them in first and let them grow a bit before introducing any other fish.
now does that change anything or should i just accept that it wont work and move on lol?

screwsloose wrote:i asure you i am not doubting your advise, just stating my observation with the current cats i have in there.

And I assure you I'm not doubting your observations and good intentions.
It's just that I think (hence the imo: in my opinion) it won't work for the above mentioned reasons. Some 20 years ago I've kept Chacas in a separate tank and that turned out to be difficult enough. The difference between Jags and Chacas on the one hand and your Pims on the other, is that the Pims are fish that swim and are able to evade "dangerous" situations, whereas the Jags and Chacas sit more or less motionless during the day, which make them sitting ducks for any curious Cich.
Btw: you seem very fond of your Cichs, so even the possibility of a deadly PH-drop would be a very good reason not to put a Chaca in that tank. Again: imo.

screwsloose wrote:if a 125g will drop 1.5 ph in a week it could possibly kill all my c*****ds which would be very bad lol.

Here I disagreee. I predict you, the frontosa will go firs, the Jack second, and the oscar?

The oscar will be happy to finally have good water. This is, the frontosa wants pH 8 (and is sensitive to low pH), the Jack 7, and the oscar 6

I will not state the obvious

bearing all in mind i will cancel the hopes for a chaca with my cichlids. is there any cat that will go good with them and looks nice?

Bas Pels wrote:
I will not state the obvious

We continually do not state the obvious ...therefore these idiots (and yep they are IDIOTS) continue to torture fish.....

taksan wrote:We continually do not state the obvious ...therefore these idiots (and yep they are IDIOTS) continue to torture fish.....

Yes, what's obvious to you and me, may not be obvious to someone else. Even I, am quite not sure, what the "obvious" is referring to here - I think it's possibly that keeping the already listed fish in the same tank is not such a great thing, as they require/prefer quite different conditions.

--
Mats

taksan wrote:...therefore these idiots (and yep they are IDIOTS) continue to torture fish.....

Remarks like this won't do any good. Especially since this member is willing to listen to advice given.
If he's doing something wrong with regard to his fishkeeping why don't you explain how it should be done instead of writing an insulting one liner?

Marc van Arc wrote:

taksan wrote:...therefore these idiots (and yep they are IDIOTS) continue to torture fish.....

Remarks like this won't do any good. Especially since this member is willing to listen to advice given.
If he's doing something wrong with regard to his fishkeeping why don't you explain how it should be done instead of writing an insulting one liner?

Marc, I think this was referring to people who don't listen, and the fact that NOT stating the obvious makes people (idiots or otherwise) less inclined to understand the situation correctly. I do agree, calling anyone an idiot is probably not the most suitable way to convince them to do something different from what they currently are doing.

--
Mats

taksan wrote:

Bas Pels wrote:
I will not state the obvious

We continually do not state the obvious ...therefore these idiots (and yep they are IDIOTS) continue to torture fish.....

if refering to me as one of " these idiots" is common practice on this board then i can see why people have told me not to come here and post. that fact that i am ignorant to catfish is the reason i came to this page. to seek advise from the people who may not be and to gain knowledge before buying the fish i wanted.
so again if the best advise you have to offer is calling would be members idiots then you yourself are an idiot and are dooming this page to never grow. your ignorance has officially ran off a new member. to those who did answer my question with knowledge, i appreciate your help. to the person who has no tact and wishes to insteaad insult people. thanks for nothing.
i am a member of a cichlid forum and when advise is needed whether teh seeker is new or experianced top the fish they are trying to seek help for, they are treated with respect. you would be wise to administer some of your own.

on another thought, i am not going to let the experiance from one member kill my thoughts for this board yet.
my question still stands for anyone that may be able to answer it. is there a recommended cat that can go with large cichlids?

Companions for large cichlids are difficult - cichlids tend to "bite anything", whether it's food or not.

This means that you either need a fish that is capable of withstanding being bitten, or that can "get away" (that is fast swimmers). belong to the second category. of the larger sizes belong to the first category.

Most everything else is likely to end up with one or another type of failure.

--
Mats

depends also on the set up of the tank and the species of cichlids.

this tank is a mix up of several species that actually require quite different waterparameters, so in the long run, it's not good.

frontosa and oscars might be OK in a tank filled with tapwater, but the difference between OK and flourishing becomes clear if the fronts go to a Tanganyikan set-up with rocks and hard, alcalic water and the oscars to a soft, acidic water set up with loads of bogwood.

both cichlid species are fairly mellow to medium-big catfishes, when there are enough hiding places for both and the tank is roomy.
central American cichlidspecies are trickier; these are often much more territorial and not used to any catfishes (except for the large and very tough Rhamdia quelen); therefore it's not an ideal type of cichlid to combine with cats.
here too the set up makes the difference, even more than with fronts or oscars: roomy tanks with plenty hideouts will make the difference between dead or live catfishes.

As far as Chaca's go; I've seen enough tanks with these up close to know that if there's ever 1 species of catfish for the speciestank: this is it.

currently have two 125g's set up simularly. rocky caves on either end with a rock or driftwood structure in the middle. plenty of hiding spaces averaging 2'' to 3'' tall and 12'' long.

also have a 300g about to be set up with no stocking currently for it other than possibly a small group of fronts. that it the tank i am planning on putting a couple of 1' range cats in.

If you are having a tank specifically for Frotnosas, then I would suggest some Lake Tanganyika . They are tough, not too difficult to find, and will be happy to live in the same sort of water as the Frontosas - all of which makes them pretty good fish for that sort of setup.
this is the search results for "Mochokidae from Tanganyika" - which means all Synos that are from Lake Tanganyika. They are sorted "by hits", which means the most popular at the top - this is USUALLY the most common fish too.

--
Mats

The Synodontus decorus needs to be given a cave of his own and fed before the lights go out. My ancistrus hide behind rocks and slates. They are kept with Trout cichlids (Champsochromis ceruleus) and aa pair of longimanus cichlids in a 6 foot 125 gallon tank.

And while not a catfish, 3 Botia Modesta's in their ow multihole type cave can even be kept with red devils, I have.