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about a week ago we bought this fish. we saw it and had to have it. first time we've bought a fish without doing the research first but who knows when we would get the chance again. so i looked it up when we got home and can't find enough info on it. i need to know about how often it eats. last night was the first night we know he ate. (bulge in belly this morning ) we also have a oscar with him so he steals all the feeder fish and we don't want to overfeed him so we rigged up a tank divider to feed the chaca but don't want to keep it in there all the time. so if anyone knows please let me know how often this guy eats.

Hi welcome to PlanetCatfish

Not that I do not believe you but first make sure this is what you have

After that probably the best thing you could do is go to the blue search at the very top of this page...punch in chaca and go from there...

Any questions after that come on back and ask away

Birger

well here is a picture of it , tell me what ya think

From the color, I'd say it looks more like .

Chaca don't need feeding everyday - treat them like you would a large pim - ie a big meal once or twice a week. They will take earthworms & pieces of freshwater fish & prawns so don't need live feeder fish.

they are best kept in tanks with reduced flow, leaf litter on a sand substrate & some dense plant thickets - floating plants are good too as mine used to spend most of their time off the bottom (surprising!) & resting amongst uprooted plants.

As oscar isn't a good tank mate for several reasons...

1 - the oscar is a visual hunter & a greedy one at that - he'll eat all the food if you're not careful - the Frogmouth (Chaca) is an ambush predator so waits for food to come to it.

2- the frogmouth wont bother tankmates (unless they are a potential meal) the oscar is tough & inquisitive & gets big - it might decide to have a go at the chaca one day.

3 - the oscar is a greedy, messy feeder which requires a good turnover of water with strong filtration - the chaca prefers very little water movement.

Chaca are a wierd & wonderful species that can be very rewarding but are a very inactive species

okay that helps a lot. about the oscar, i wasn't sure but we had been talking about one for a while and so it happened. they are just in a 50 gallon tank right now but come tax return i plan on buying a much larger tank and that is going to be the oscars permanent home. right now he's only as long as the chaca and we haven't seen him anywhere near the chaca. well he was sold as a chaca chaca but he could be a chaca bankanensis. do they also make the clicking noise because this one does? i've only read that a chaca chaca does. i'll look into them a bit more, too. the worms help too, we have an awesome supply back home of nightcrawlers. and they last forever in the fridge. not too hard to catch, either. thanks

You can probably keep the Chaca in a pretty small tank on his own (60L perhaps) as they aren't an active fish.

They do apparently cause the pH to drop really low though for some reason. I'm not sure if the Chaca is happy with this or not, although you can put some coral sand in the filter to buffer against it.

only have one other question (for now) we didn't see this until a couple days after we got the chaca home but on his dorsal fin it looks like a spine or two have been broken off and then it had a white almost mold looking stuff on it. that is gone now and it looks like the spine(s) are coming in. is this normal? i ask because now on both of his pectoral(?) fins the same thing is happening. i didn't see anything like this on any of the pics i can find, or read about it either. is it just how a fish heals, we've never had one do this before.

got the good camera out to take pics of it



i now know that that isn't the best set up but it is what we have until we get the new tank for the oscar. then we will switch the deco and add more hiding places, though he is out most of the time.

Some fish take a beating in transport or are kept together with the wrong fish in holding
....give it good food, clean water and some quiet time to heal up...
keep an eye on it...make sure the oscar or any other fish do not decide to pick at it

Birger

The top photo shows some fungus on the wound - some standard aquarium fungus treatment should help - be careful with dosing as some scaleless cats can be a bit sensitive.

the missing spines could be collectors snipping them off if caught in nets - they should grow back though

thanks for the answers,and so quickly. will write again when i have more.

Very cool fish.

Any update on it's progress?

I'm looking for one of these myself.