South American Striped Raphael

skorpiokat · Post by **skorpiokat** » 03 May 2005, 06:33

Hi I am a total novice about catfish -but a quick study.
I was setting up a new tank -tiny 5 gallon for feng shui, REALLY...anyway I set up the tank with a thermometer at 75 farenheit, freshwater and cool-really cool decor ( like I want to live in my tank). After about aweek I added 4 black neons to begin 'the bacteria build up'....then stoopid me, I became impatient and went to pet smart- a pet smart that actually had not only live but healthy fish and a really nice aquarium area....long story short- there he was swimin' like a champion and I had to have him 'lil Ricky' my Striped Raphael ( 1 1/2 "). All has been well now for about 2 weeks until today I noticed two spots of a white yellow 'fuzzy' bloom attached to his fins- I'm assuming this is ick? otherwise he is active and really mobile.
I really like this guy any advice -also on food etc- he seems to get along with the neons and they him
(there are 4). I want to do right by my fish so all advice and info is most welcome.
thanks and glub glub from the kids in the tank.

natefrog · Post by **natefrog** » 04 May 2005, 06:55

The fuzz your striped rapheal has is not "ick," it is a fungus. You can treat the fish with a suitable braodband anti-fungal medication and that should clear it up. If you really want a happy tank you may want to reconsider keeping small fish like neons with the Rapheal, they will end up disappearing in the night. Rapheals and their relatives are all carnivourous predatory catfish, having said that their mouths are fairly small so fast moving medium sized fish should be fine. I would suggest dwarf south american c******S killis or larger tetras, but just a couple for a small tank. As well, make sure that you have some kink of shelter for the Rapheal, a pipe or broken clay pot works well. These fiesh are nocturnal and need somewhere dark to rest their eyes during the day. Regular small water changes and good food should also help bring him back to health quickly. They are relativley tough fish so if treated properly he should be 100% in no time.

Sandtiger · Post by **Sandtiger** » 04 May 2005, 23:29

You may also want to consider a larger tank in the future, these catfish will outgrow a 5g.

PlecoCrazy · Post by **PlecoCrazy** » 05 May 2005, 02:56

I have noticed that fungus many times goes hand in hand with poor water quality. A 5 gallon tank is very hard to maitain good water quality due to its small size not to mention your catfish will easily outgrow this tank. Your fish will be much easier to take care of if you get a larger tank.

skorpiokat · Post by **skorpiokat** » 05 May 2005, 04:50

hi thanks all!
I have begun treating for fungus and I'm slowly changing out the water- I won't tell you what I think the problem was (...ok I will- I stupidly left a price sticker on the bottom of an ornament-don't know how I missed that-but it couldn't have been any good for the environment...won't happen again...I'm raising my hand to heart as I pledge this...)
Ricky is looking much better and I am heeding your advice on the larger tank, a slow water change and some cozy hiding places for him/her.
The neons are all bigger than Ricky's mouth at this point so I'm not too worried-yet...

I'm also wondering about food. Ricky has no interest in sinking wafers but goes crazy for something called tetra's 'rich mix' for community fish, is this enough? (I'm not feeding too much because it's 'rich')will a striped cat eat veggies like cucumbers? appreciate the advice.

Sandtiger · Post by **Sandtiger** » 05 May 2005, 06:30

By sinking waffers do you mean algea waffers? These fish are not like plecostomus...they don't eat veggies and such. When I had one I fed it shrimp pellets, worms (earth,blood,tubifex) and cichlid flakes.

natefrog · Post by **natefrog** » 05 May 2005, 07:11

[/quote]Rapheals and their relatives are all carnivourous predatory catfish.

Having said that, The best foods for these guys are live/frozen bloodworms, earthworm pieces (small enough for its mouth), tubifix worms (although I'm not a fan as these are raised in sewage), and comprehensive flake or pellet foods as a way to ensure essential nutrients. If I may be so presumptuous, if you want to by a tank large enough to house him into adulthood, a 30G tank would be considered a minimum.

skorpiokat · Post by **skorpiokat** » 05 May 2005, 07:43

WOW!
natefrog, 30G? man I am a novice-well nothing like jumping in! that explains the lack of interest in eating algae wafers. I do have a dry mix of tubifex worms that R seams to like along with his temporary pals the neons. tomorrow I'm on my way to a 'real' aquarium store to get some Striped Raphael provisions and advice on tanks (I'll start looking at some larger tanks NOW).
How fast do these fish grow and in inches what is their average size?
admittedly I am in over my head- do you have any reading material suggestions?- I hate to keep asking so many newbie questions, although I'm glad I found this web site.
I am an 'animals are for life' kind of person so I'll dive in and make this my newest rescue/adventure ( the rescue meaning from my own ignorance, of this very cool species- I'm hooked i really like my fish!).

skorpiokat · Post by **skorpiokat** » 05 May 2005, 07:49

-sandtiger- yes I have been splitting algae wafers- I had a plec once and my petsmart folk suggested the sinking wafers, but this guy has no interest whatsoever and my plec almost sat up and begged for them -really.

also how can I determine the sex of this fish?

( plec is still alive and well at mom's- it is very large and always hungry)

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 05 May 2005, 10:14

More info on is there if you click on it's name in this line.

More info on how to maintain fish in general, there's a lot of books about this, but I'm afraid I can't recommend a particular one. You should be able to find half a dozen or more if you go to either a good fish shop, http://www.amazon.com or a local book-shop (the non-net version is better because you can actually take a look inside the book BEFORE you decide to buy it. The LFS may be better able to help with book selection than the book shop, but may have a smaller selection because they aren't a book-shop).

As for more info for future purchases, it's always useful to have a look at prospective new fish on the Cat-eLog page, and perhaps ask in the forum on it's compatibility with other fish.

A 30G tank is a good size (about 36"x12"x15" or so), it's big enough to be more stable than a smaller tank, and it's big enough for a reasonable variety of fish, yet small enough to not be too difficult to manage and place. Small tanks (which are good in themselves) are very limiting in fish that fits in them, and many fish sold in the shops won't really go well in the smaller tanks.

[I've got four tanks (sharing with my fiancee), the biggest one is 100g, the smallest is about 7g. The smaller ones require more maintenance than the bigger ones, but of course changing 20-30g of water in the big tank takes a few buckets...]

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Mats