Looking for a Small Central American Catfish For Biotope!

[BoxxerBoyDrew]

Hey PlanetCatfish!

Drew here, and it is my first post on your GREAT SITE, and I found the site while searching for a small catfish to go in a 40B I am wanting to set up as a Central American River Biotope that will be centered around a group of Alvarezi Swordtails I already have! The group consists of 1 young male and 5 young females which they all have just recently dropped their first fry! They are in a 10g for now, but that is getting pretty cramped very quickly since there are about 15+ babies that are now 3/8" and smaller, and 3 of the 5 females are already showing their gravid spots again with 1 of the females starting to get pretty big in her belly!

Anyway I really want to have a bottom dweller/catfish in the tank, and it will have plenty of rock work, and as many live plants as I can get in it but still keep it looking like a biotope and not just another planted tank! I want to keep it as close to 100% accurate as possible, but I don't want to jeopardize the lives of any other fish in the tank doing it either, ya know what I am saying!?! A 5" or less would be Ideal but so far I have absolutly NO LUCK FINDING ONE!!! A Buddy on the Biotope Forum found the Rhamdia guatemalensis here and shot me the link and that's what got me here, but after talking to TheFishGuy, it will not work for my needs, so I am asking you guys!

So if ANYONE can help me out with a catfish/bottom dweller/ cleanup crew for this Biotope settup I WOULD BE VERY GREAT FULL for the help!!!!! If I can't find an actual local catfish to meet my needs I am going to find the next best substitute in a Cory or Plec that will be happy in the hard water environment of this tank, so any Ideas for them would be APPRECIATED TOO!!!

Thank You for ANY AND ALL help Yall can provide, and I have really enjoyed this site so far, and have learned a lot in the short time I have been a member! I have been keeping fish for 30+ years, and have had Multiple fresh water and salt water tanks as well as worked for one of the BEST LFS in the WACO for a number of years in the store and with service calls. I have always had Cories or some form of Catfish in every one of my tanks, and I just have a hard time thinking of this aquarium and its layout with NO CATS in it! I don't think so!

Thanks Again and Take Care!!!
Drew

[Jools]

There isn't a small biotope catfish I am aware of that would be available.

Rhamdia

are the biotope cats and they may be too big?

Jools

[BoxxerBoyDrew]

Thanks Jools!!!

That's what I have been running into! So it looks like if I want to keep a bottom dweller in there it will have to be a Cory that can take the harder water like the Swords like! I use straight tap water, but in our area it comes out of the tap like liquid rock! Ph is usually 7.8-8.2, Kh is 15 gdh+, Gh is usually 4+ ghd. We live on a Limestone shelf that runs through the water table, so hard water fish do excellent, and when we want to do anything else we have to run R/O Units PERIOD!

Anyway Do You or anyone else have a suggestion on a Cory or small Catfish that will take the water I am taking about. I know most the captive bread fish are more adaptable, but I don't want to keep a fish where I would cause it to have a shortened life span or have it be completely unhappy just because I like to have them in the tank either!!!

Thanks Again!!!
Drew

[Jools]

With that info., there are few corys I could recommend. Some might "cope" with the parameters but I'm not a huge fan of keeping fish well outside their comfort zone.

Corydoras weitzmani

is the closest I know of but, as I say, not my recommendation.

Maybe consider

Phyllonemus

?

Jools

[Bas Pels]

As central America is poor in catfish, and swordtail lack almost all agression outside their own species (I am a member of Poecilia, the Dutch lifebearer association) I would not hesitate combining cats from far wasy

Still, they need to vope with hard water and sords prefer it cool Even X helleri is better kept at 22 C than 25.

I have been told New Guinea has hard water, and perhaps a cat from high in the mountains will be able to cope with the cold as well?