PlanetCatfish.com

Hi there. I have currently have a single Pygmy Driftwood Catfish (Trachelyichthys Exilis) which I am looking to get some other catfish tank mates for. Within the next month I’m getting my first big tank with the dimensions of 48” Long 18” wide and 24” tall. I know I’m going to track down three more of the same woodcat species because my little guy is a shoaling fish in the wild. At the moment I have many ideas of what I want to put with him. The main one is a black lancer (I know this is Non-Biotopically correct but as this is my first large tank I’m not too bothered about biotopes as of now, but I definitely will in the future) I have heard that if you give a black lancer it’s own space and a cave to live in they will do fine with other bottom dwellers that aren’t closely related. I also would love some sort of spiny Pleco that gets 6-8” but I am finding it difficult to find many of this size would be greatly appreciated. Any other recommendations of small to medium catfish that would go well would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Be wary of keeping plecos with T. exilis. I lost my T. exilis when they went into caves first and the pleco came in behind them. The Pleco (small Hypancistrus) literally ate their skin off.

Have kept Trachelyichthys, Centromochlus and Tatia with small to medium sized plecos without issue including Hypancistrus. Those tanks were given lots of wood caves / structures above pleco caves then this would likely avoid the issue Narwhal72 describes. Specifically it was L075 that I kept with the Trachelyichthys - so pretty good sized caves.

It may be that medium sized plecos (as opposed to small ones with small caves) might be a safe option but I don't think plecos trapping woodcats is a common problem but clearly something to be wary off.


Jools

Ok. That makes sense. Hypancistrus like warm and fast flowing water so with the fact that I’m going to keep the tank at 24°C and that story I’ll steer clear of them. What about the medium Panaqolus species as they are largely vegetarian? Flash and mustard spot plecos seem cool, I like that the mustard spots pattern doesn’t change with age unlike the flash. I also really love L306 but they may be a bit small. I definitely don’t want my woodcat to be attacked though so I’ll definitely be very careful from now onwards with the Pleco I choose.