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South American Bumblebee Catfish (Microglanis iheringi)

Posted: 14 Jun 2004, 23:41
by ECW
Has anyone had any experience with one of these brilliant fish?

I have one in my 40G S.A setup, with an Asian BB, and I wanted to know what they are like to keep and what they prefer in a tank.

He's dug a hole under a piece of bogwood. He shifted loads of sand to do it, and he's less than 2" long!

Thanks in advance :D

Posted: 15 Jun 2004, 01:59
by Silurus
A fairly easy to catfish to keep. Not demanding about what it eats (in fact, sometimes downright greedy), and peaceful to tankmates (that are not small enough to eat anyway).
Provide hiding spaces for it, ample food and it'll be in hog heaven.

Posted: 15 Jun 2004, 02:21
by Paula
My Microglanis iheringi lived almost exclusively on frozen brine shrimp for over 19 yrs. I also kept a few platies in the tank; their fry periodically provided an additional food source. I always fed in the evening. Being a night owl myself, this worked well with my schedule.

The tank is heavily planted and has additional aeration besides the filter. The only other requirement was a dark cave-like area under an arched rock. Sometimes she shared her "home" with an African frog or kuhli loaches, but usually all visitors were chased away.

The topic: "19 yr. old bumblebee akysis..." is about this fish. Initially, I had incorrectly identified it. Take a look.

Posted: 15 Jun 2004, 10:01
by Chrysichthys
At least here, what is sold as Microglanis often seems to be , as I found out when mine grew several times as large as it was supposed to, and small fish started disappearing at night.

Posted: 15 Jun 2004, 11:35
by ECW
Well I checked up and this one and it is the one I said.

It wasn't actually on sale. I lost two Asian BB in January when my heater broke, and haven't found any since. I spoke to the manager of my local LFS about ordering them, but I couldn't. But then he remembered he moved two into the Rainbowfish tank and forgot about them! One was Asian, one was S.A so I snapped them both up!:D

Thanks for the help :)