Catfish affraid of light

animefan_73 · Post by **animefan_73** » 27 Nov 2005, 01:25

Hi, I just registered with this forum after having seen all of the insightful responces others have posted, and I was hoping that perhaps someone might be able to toss a bit of information my way as well. I purchased a catfish about two weeks ago, and he seems to be doing quite well, with the exception that it never comes out into the open when there is any ambient light. It hides underneath the rock formation I have in the aquarium until there is little or no light at all, and even then it is very skittish when it is not underneath that rock. The person at the fish store told me that it may just be trying to get acclimated to a new environment and could take a few days to get used to it, but I'm beginning to have second thoughts. All of the fish that were in the tank I got it from seem to be quite content while there is light in the tank, and don't seem to immediately seek shelter when there is any motion near the tank either. If I had to make a guess, since the guy at the store didn't know exactly what the fish was either, I'd say it looks a lot like a pictus catfish, but rather than having spots on its body, it has 4 medium/dark stripes running from head to tail. I really would appreciate any input you may have, and if I have given insufficient information, just let me know. Thanks.

Post by **Silurus** » 27 Nov 2005, 01:33

Catfishes are nocturnal, so for many of them, their first instinct on encountering light is to hide.

Check . That might be your fish.

animefan_73 · Post by **animefan_73** » 27 Nov 2005, 06:57

You are awesome! That's the one alright! Thank you for your advice.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 28 Nov 2005, 13:43

If it's anything like , it may also be braver if it's got some friends in the tank.

Covering the tank with some plants at the top (such as Water Lettuce - a floating plant) and sides (any decent leafy plant would do) would certainly help.

--
Mats

Post by **Silurus** » 28 Nov 2005, 13:46

it may also be braver if it's got some friends in the tank

My experience with this species is that they are indifferent to conspecifics. If the tank is not large enough, some scuffling is even likely.

animefan_73 · Post by **animefan_73** » 02 Dec 2005, 05:52

I think that the lighting for my tank may have been a contributing factor. I had been using a 15 watt incandescent light bulb that was intended for reptiles, thus a UV light. I only today found out that this can be quite unpleasant, especially for catfish. I also have 3 bala sharks in the tank, and they seem to be more active and less likely to hide than they were before, now that I've switched to two blue 15 watt bulbs. I had no idea prior to today that fish didn't like ultraviolet light... but after taking the hood off with the light on and looking at it, I realized just how intense it really was. On top of the tank it wasn't bad at all, but just a brief glimpse instantly showed me just what I had exposed my fish to... and I felt really bad. The catfish had been exposed to it for about a week and a half now and the balas for maybe 3 weeks. Luckily I at least was smart enough to have plenty of hiding spots that are completely out of the light... but I feel stupid for not having adequately researched it prior to that.