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Whiptail information

Posted: 18 Nov 2012, 23:43
by phantomlink
I was at the LFS and I saw a few Whiptail catfish left in one of their tanks, I did a quick search on my phone but couldnt find much info besides for being peaceful and lots of different species. Unfortunately I didnt take a picture so I cant have them identified but I was wondering if what I read about them was true that they dont really eat the other fish in the tank? I was thinking of getting one of these ( or more if I need for them to be comfortable ) for my aquarium but just wanted to make sure my fish would be ok.

Also, sand mandatory or fine gravel ok?

Re: Whiptail information

Posted: 19 Nov 2012, 08:09
by Richard B
Whiptails from hemiloricaria & rineloricria would prefer sand (how fine is the gravel?)

Sturisoma would be less fussy.

All of them are non-predatory fishes.

Re: Whiptail information

Posted: 19 Nov 2012, 14:05
by phantomlink
The bag I haven't used says its 0.5-2mm or so, but I might use finer then that. My main tank is all sand but its already pretty full

Re: Whiptail information

Posted: 19 Nov 2012, 16:11
by Richard B
That size dimension on the fine gravel sounds suitable. :-BD

Re: Whiptail information

Posted: 19 Nov 2012, 17:16
by phantomlink
Its a little off species, but it is fine for Corys as well? heres images I used on another site:

http://i.imgur.com/0Ojx3.jpg
^The bag
http://i.imgur.com/gCYst.jpg
^How it looks close up
http://i.imgur.com/rZrqa.jpg
^It says 20 pounds is good for 20 gallons, that is a 35 gallon tank and it filled it pretty well so I have a leftover bag still

Re: Whiptail information

Posted: 19 Nov 2012, 17:33
by Richard B
The grains look a little on the sharp /angular side for corys but it appears that its only a % of them. How does it feel if you rub it between your hands? or run your fingers through it?

I'd be tempted to say go for it, if you could mix it with some pool filter sand, or kids play sand.

Re: Whiptail information

Posted: 19 Nov 2012, 17:45
by phantomlink
Its a little roughish, I wouldn't say too much of it is sharp. Do you think a mixture of that and black/fine sand would work? I have playsand in my other tanks and its the same feeling almost as the black sand this company sells. I'm planning for a large 75gallon livebearer tank but I wanted to be able to have a bottom feeder that would work for something larger then sand, but smaller then gravel. I have alot of leftover gravel from the tanks I've acquired and wanted to get some use out of them, they're all really soft but larger pieces, plus I got this leftover bag of fine gravel as well. I like sand but washing it is a pain and I want to be able to gravel vac a tank easily compared to the sand ones I have.

This white stuff takes alot more room up then the fine sand does, and at $25 a bag I think I'm almost going to spend my entire credit with the store on substrate unless I use playsand again

Decisions decisions....