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my husband and i bought 3 "cories" from our only local pet store 10 days ago to be bottom feeders in a new tank. the owner gave us shrimp pellets for our lobster (also new) instructing us to feed 3- 4 pellets once a day. when i was worried the "cories" wouldnt have enough food because we also bought a pico to bottom feed and only 12 other little fish (angels, dollars, zebras, and neon tetras) she said "oh yeah the cories will eat the shrimp pellets too". well the cories are not cories as i was looking at info on line, looks to me like i have three 6 inch (at least)ariidae ariopsis midgelyi as they look very similar to the pic i found on here. i dont want them to starve but have no clue what to feed them :/ somebody please help.

Moved topic to correct forum as I guess we need to ID this fish before we can suggest what to feed it.

Jools

Further to Jools' move of the subject, I think we really need a photo of the fish to ID it properly. As Jools says, we need to know what the fish is to make any sensible suggestion as to what the feeding regime (and other care) should be.

Edit: having just looked up , I very much doubt that this is the fish you have. Northern Australia coast isn't exactly the most common export location...

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Mats

If your fish looks similar to that one I'd hazard a guess at Pangasius. Do your "Cories" look anything like this?

If they are I'd suggest taking tham back to the shop as they are not even remotely suited for a tank. Asking for a Cory and getting Pangasius is like asking for a canary and getting a vulture. ;) And you might want to reconsider the mixture of fish in your tank. They don't match too well. The zebra (assuming they are Danio rerio) for example will harass the angels and damage their fins. And if your Cory is some type of Ariid or the like you probably will not have to worry what to feed until it runs out of Neons and zebras.

is a much more likely candidate than Ariopsis midgelyi, assuming its an ariid. is another one assuming its not.

Not only will they eat shrimp pellets, but they'll eat the rest of your fish in due time.

very very hard to get a picture they basically live in their pvc tubes and only come out when im sleeping or not around. if they see any movement or hear any noise from us they dart back into the tubes here are myattempts so far i also tried to take of all the other fish in casethey arent what she said they are as she told us all these fish would live nicely together. i will keep trying

Based on the caudal fin alone, I'd say you have Yasuhikotakia modesta and not a catfish (it's a loach).

Yes! Yes! Yes! These are My fish the modesta ones. So from what i just read on the link provided it sounds like they should not be mixed in with my Pico, Dollars, Angels, Tetras and Zebras. It says that they are territorial and will often fight and should be put only with larger fish, so far all of my other fish are still accounted for but this is a huge worry as the lady we bought them from was giving us fish that she said would live together. i will post the pictures of the other fish in my tank (the zebras and tetras) so that I can find out their correct names.
How much food do the modesta's need everyday?

I am not saying that this fish isn't a blue botia, but over here at least it would be far more likely that a dark fish with bright red tail is a Epalzeorhynchos bicolor aka redtail shark. You can get them in virtually every fish shop. But the two are really easy to tell apart when you see the whole fish.

sunfish wrote:Epalzeorhynchos bicolor

Good thought as that is a more common fish, but if you look closely at the bottom picture you will see a red anal fin. Also, in Epalzeorhynchos bicolor, the red colouration strays onto the caudal peduncle, we can't see that on this fish. It's not slender bodied enough either to be a "shark".

Jools

i looked at the red tail shark pics and it is not them, they are definately blue botia they look exactly like the pictures. unfortunately i have expressed all of my concerns to my husband about how things will likely end up in the tank, with the community not really being that compatible and the tank being too small. His reply was survival of the fittest and fish only grow to their tanks . I told him that I could just go and pick up one 10 gallon tank from walmart (not sure what would be best to move in to it if i did) and his response was we have already spent lots of money in the last month on tanks and fish and he doesn't feel like spending more, also he was like how many fish tanks do we need we already have 2! Should i just wait a while and save up money to buy a bigger tank i think the biggest we can find at walmart would be a 40 gallon and that would only be when they actually have them in. At the time we bought our 20 gallon it was the largest there.

unfortunately i have expressed all of my concerns to my husband about how things will likely end up in the tank, with the community not really being that compatible and the tank being too small.

You are entirely correct.

is reply was survival of the fittest and fish only grow to their tanks

Your husband is wrong. Well, actually, he's technically correct in that survival of the fittest will certainly apply, but wrong in that this is a good way to keep the living creatures whose lives are now your responsibility.

I would return all the fishes* except the neon rainbowfish and the zebra danios. None are remotely suitable for your aquarium as even a short term home. I would also visit a different store, as this store should not be trusted.

If you don't do this, you will certainly find fishkeeping a very expensive and unrewarding hobby.

*and the "lobster"

I agree with your suggestion of finding a different shop, however, it seems there aren't an extensive range of options:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 91#p244498

Unfortunately I am in a small city literally in the middle of nowhere! I live 6 hours north of Saskatoon,and 8 hours north of Winnipeg. The closest larger city centers to me would be Thompson which is 4 hours to the north and Prince Albert which is 4 hours to the south Not sure if there would be any way to make a trade with somebody when we would have to travel such a large distance with the fish.

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Mats