Krytopterus vitreolus constitution

[naturalart]

I've just taken into my care some K. vitreolus. I see them as so delicate and fragile. But since I've had them for about 2 weeks now in Q, they've survived ich, and eat just about anything they can fit in their mouths (which is pretty small at this point). That has been changing my perspective of this fish. But I still see them as a bit delicate, 'high' energy fish and am constantly worried that they aren't getting enough to eat. Has anyone experimented/experience with how long these fish can go without eating?
I've taken them to 2 days without food and they do ok. But I don't want to damage them by taking it too far unnecessarily. The largest fish is about 2 inches.

[bekateen]

I've just taken into my care some K. vitreolus. I see them as so delicate and fragile. ... Has anyone experimented/experience with how long these fish can go without eating?.... I've taken them to 2 days without food and they do ok. But I don't want to damage them by taking it too far unnecessarily.

Hi Clay,

Good to see you getting more fish!

Glass cats were one of the first catfishes I kept when I reentered the hobby in 2012. Like you, I thought of them as delicate, but for no particular reason. In my opinion, feeding was never my concern but stress was. As you might know, I often skip 1, 2, 3, and (rarely) 4 days without feeding my fish, and I think it does little harm, and it might even help trigger spawning when foods are added back.

But with glass cats, I was aware that they didn't want to be in the open. They seemed to want to school together among vertical twigs, plants and shadows.

Good luck with them.

Cheers, Eric

[naturalart]

Hey Eric, good to hear from you. Yeah, I occasionally do a 2-day fast on smaller fish, so its interesting to hear you do 3 - 4 occasionally. I do know fish can go a bit longer (particularly larger fish) but I stay away from a lot of that since I haven't seen a lot of research on positive or negative effects physically (stunted growth, etc.). Thanks for your response.

[Birger]

I am with Eric on the fasting, not to worried if they miss a few days.Most glass cats, I have experience with the African varieties can get stressed. If you see them staying near the bottom just kind of shimmying you have a problem that needs to be addressed quickly or you will start losing them one by one.Usually happened from competition with other species I think. They generally eat well, zipping around like crazy during feeding times.

[bekateen]

The only types of fish I don't intentionally fast are fry. Those I feed 2-4x per day.

Cheers, Eric

[naturalart]

Thank you Birger and Eric. They are feeding well on staple and live. Still working on the frozen piece. They are still too small to swallow a whole 'blood worm'. They are moving about the tank comfortably and they will be going into a planted tank with a school of Hyphessobrycon robertsi tetras and rasboras. We'll see how they do at feeding time.

[naturalart]

One interesting thing of note: the fish in the left of the picture has lots of black pigment all throughout its body, on the bone the notochord, the skull, eyes, etc,. It was the last of a batch separate from the others. I'm guessing its a wild caught fish. Opinions?

[Lycosid]

One interesting thing of note: the fish in the left of the picture has lots of black pigment all throughout its body, on the bone the notochord, the skull, eyes, etc,. It was the last of a batch separate from the others. I'm guessing its a wild caught fish. Opinions?

Well, to the best of my knowledge all K. vitreolus are wild-caught, although some may be pond-bred. There have just recently been technical papers out where a team got them to lay eggs and then raised some fry partway, but I don't know that anyone has managed to deliberately get a new generation from a captive population, and even the current efforts involved hormone injections.

[naturalart]

Thanks for the info Lycosid.