schooling catfish 30-50cm range for a 6foot 300gal

[steenmillinder]

Hi

I have a mixed cichlid tank with some Oscars, a jag a devil a Rivulatus, in a 6,5 foot 180gal tank, and I want to upgrade it to a 300gal tank within a year, I was wondering if there are any synodontis-like catfish where I could keep between 3-6 togeather and see them interacting with oneanother? I have 4 clown loaches that do that...

Thx

[Birger]

If you want true schoaling catfish go to Parailia pelucida and Pareutropius buffei best kept in larger groups they would be great in such a tank. The smaller Synodontis such as Synodontis nigriventris would also work, I like to keep them in groups of at least 12.

Birger

[Birger]

The loaches will go huge and may not get along with synodontis. You are better to go with a loach tank.

Birger

[steenmillinder]

thx for the reply!

I think they might be too small for my tank, hope to keep them with medium-large cichlids, hoped for a bottom dweller Synodontis type, I have a S. eupterus and a S. njassae, that sometimes get along and sometimes not so much, but I have a lot of rock and woodwork so they can easily get away from each other. When I wrote schooling fish it was maybe a bit too much, more "sociable" than a true schooling or shoaling, kind of S. Petricola but bigger 12-20 inches... Can giraffe cats be kept togeather?

[catfishchaos]

Chrysichthys ornatus

are a litte bigger and recorded to swim in large shoals but still shy of the size your looking for. From my understanding most giraffe cats can be a little to big or a little to territorial.

Pimelodus ornatus

or something else from that group might fit your fancy as well.
a group of

Liosomadoras oncinus

may do well in such a tank as well.

If your willing to go a little smaller than you could start exploring the Doradinae family, things like

Orinocodoras eigenmanni

,

Platydoras armatulus

,

Centrodoras brachiatus

,

Rhinodoras dorbignyi

and probably a few others as most member sof the family seem to be ok with or enjoy their own kind (there are exceptions however).

[steenmillinder]

thanks a lot!! just what I needed! I've kept aquaria most of my life from 220gal reef to biotope rift, but I'm new to cats, I will read up on all of the ones you postet, tanks!

[steenmillinder]

Chrysichthys ornatus, Rhinodoras dorbignyi and Liosomadoras oncinus if I could only pick 3, don't know if Platydoras armatulus and Orinocodoras eigenmanni might be a bit small, but amazing looking! I'll ask what is available in my region of the world and see what I can find about their behaviour, great list if there are anymore do post, thanks a lot.

[ThePsychotiCatfish]

I don't know if this helps but I've seen Pictus cats (Pimelodus Pictus) grow to about a foot and mine shoal nicely. They do tend to stay near the bottom though.

[Bas Pels]

I would doubt the ID, P pictus @ 30 cm. That is twice what they are expected to reach

[steenmillinder]

yes I have seen the Pictus but the interwebs said it was too small.. the more I look at Centrodoras brachiatus the more I like it, what a dinosaur!!

If any of you can say anything about the behaviour of any of the listed cats please do tell, and thanks for your help!

[N0body Of The Goat]

If those four Clown loaches are already in this community, I think at least part of the answer is increase that loach group to 12+, enabling them to form a natural complex hierarchy and giving them more confidence to be active.

From the Mochokidae group of catfish, I'm struggling to come up with many safe shoaling candidate species that could be combined with the likes of adult Oscar Cichlids. The best I can think of would be

Synodontis decorus

, MatsP on here has my old singleton and has since acquired another three.

I've very recently acquired a second

Chrysichthys ornatus

, but the newcomer is still in quarantine, so I've yet to see if multiples make them less reserved first-hand. However, going on my eldest one raised from a ~3cm SL youngster, they are not exactly vulture-like at food time when compared to the likes of my Giraffe Catfish for example!