Looking for a catfish...

[peefyloo]

I have a 225g tank with 2 young Oscars and a small pleco. I am looking for a catfish though. I was just wondering what everyone would suggest. Someone actually suggested a bullhead...but i dunno.

What do you all think?

[Richard B]

Not a bullhead - they are a coldwater/temperate fish & the oscars & plec are tropical.

You could try synodontis acanthomias, s.longirostris or s.decorus all of which can get to a good size.

In the doradids you could look at oxydoras niger, pteradoras granulosus, megladoras uranoscopus, lithodoras dorsalis,

I would steer clear of the giant pims but you could look at pimelodus blochii or ornatus or pseudopimelodus bufonis. goeldiella eques.

Channallabes or gymnallabes from africa, but again avoid the giraffe cat auchenoglanis as it gets huge & is active.

You might want to try callichthys.

I would avoid hemibagrus & rita as there are size & aggression issues.

There are so many choices but i recommend you go through cat-e-log see what you fancy & look at the requirements to keep it or ask specific questions on these forums - it's a great size tank so keep us posted

[peefyloo]

Thanks for the reply, do any of those eat of the bottom better than the others?

Also kinda off topic...when i do water changes, whould i add salt to it them? Or put a little in everyweek?

[MatsP]

Unless you keep fish that are definitely brackish, you should never add salt as a "regualar thing". Salt is very low in the natural habitat of most fishes [obviously not counting those that do live where a river merges an ocean, and marine water mixes with freshwater from a river].

Salt can be used as a medication in special cases, but just like it's not good for you to take headache pills "just in case", it's no good to just add salt in the tank "just in case".

--
Mats

[Richard B]

The cats i mentioned are pretty mush all bottom feeders - my preference would be the synos or the doradids