PlanetCatfish.com

What you do is, when they come up and beg for food, hold a food tablet in the palm of your hand with your middle two fingers. They start nuzzling your hand and give it the full barbel treatment, which is a hideous sensation.

After a few times, they start nuzzling your hand whenever you put it in the water, which is exasperating when you're trying to work on the tank. But you can't really punish catfish, even if you feel like smacking them.

gotta try that barbel treatment... We just got three Hoplosternum littorale to our store yesterday. Seems to be some real characters.

They'll quickly learn to beg for food and take it from your fingers. They will follow your hand as you move it up the outside of the tank, so as to be in the right place.

The fish we got has a very dark colour, almost black. Can this be a sign of illness? (they are alot darker than photos i've seen of H.littorale) They weren't in so good condition when they arrived five days ago. One of them is missing most of the lower lobe of its tailfin and one barbel, another have quite a lot of fin damage too. They seem happy though, eatin' and everything.

I think even death wouldn't stop a littorale from eating. They're so greedy it's comical.