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I have been given the go signal by my wife to get another tank. This is as long as we get some blood parrotfish. I know that we are duty bound not to buy or support any of these hybrid, genetically-altered fish but, with that principle out of the picture, can the striped catfish, albino mystus (all white with black / red eyes) cat, asian upside downcatfish and bumbleebee catfish get along together in a tank? What do you think?

I am still trying to convince my wife not to get parrotfish but she adores the different colours. Yuck! Lets hope for the best.

Regards,
Mike D.

Do you have any idea what species the albino Mystus is? A large majority of the albino bagrids I have seen are Hemibagrus.

Hi!

I absolutely hate these bloody fish! What my dealer told me is that the colors begin to fade after about 1-2 months and the fish regain their normal "piggy-pink" color. Not sure how much truth is in this info but ive seen colored tetras that nobody bought and they all faded in color after a couple of months, so i think the info is genuine.
Also my dealer said these bastards are impossible to keep with any other fish as they dig like hell and attack everything in their way.

Yeah, that's what I've heard as well regarding the blood parrots. At least there'll be more space for my cats.

Oh btw, those mytus cats, I haven't gotten them yet. They were in the same tank as those hemibagrus wickii (black catfish) at the LFS and looked strangely like them. The mytus were around already 4" sizes for the equivalent of US$4 a piece.

What do you think I can get for the tank set-up? So far I have the Striped. I am still getting the bumblee and the upside down cats. Might as well get some ompoks (but they are so terribly ugly). I'd rather get the ordinary glass cats but they are not in season. Any other ideas? If there aren't anymore asian cats aside from clarias and some shark cats, what would you think if I went for Loaches instead? Thanks HH for bearing with me.

Regards,
Mike D.

Just checked. Good I did not get those albino mystus just yet. It turns out this is the hemibagrus nemurus.

Regards,
Mike D.

Mike, can you get black lancers? They'd do OK in a setup you have in mind. Let me dig around and see what else I can find.

BTW, I don't consider Ompok to be ugly fish, but that's just the eyes of the beholder.

There aren't that many more species suitable for a setup like yours.
A school of Mystus castaneus (the pearl catfish, often misidentified as M. armatus, M. nigriceps or M. micracanthus) would work, as would something like a group of Kryptopterus cryptopterus. You'd have to garnish your tank with barbs or rasboras for sure.

Silurus wrote:You'd have to garnish your tank with barbs or rasboras for sure.

Some of these can be quite colorful. If your wife approves, get some melon or fire barbs instead of the devil fish.

Rusty

I think you guys are underestimating how aggressive these Bloodparots are from what i've heard they are very bad tempered Red devils and thats not good. all fish that don't hide for 12 hours in a cave are out of the question, if the hype is to believed.

don't belive everything you hear



after all where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction ??

Just missed the bumblee bee catfish from the LFS. Darn! I have a chance to get the upside down cats this Saturday. I hope I get them.

So, tankmates can be barbs and rasboras? I shall look into them. Any other asian fish that can be possible tankmates? I'll see what I can get from here.

HH, I've been wanting to get the black lancers for the longest time! I just don't get to see them here. Too bad, I just live a few hours away from Thailand.

Regards,
Mike D.

Labyrinth fishes (such as gouramies; the larger Colisa would be nice) would be suitable tankmates. Loaches will also do, but then you might already have enough bottom-dwelling fish.
A large number of the lancers come from Indonesia, not Thailand. If you have a chance to stop by Singapore on business, you might run into them in LFSs, especially when they are in season.