PlanetCatfish.com

Hi,

I've got some problems with my upside downs. One of them has a swollen eye, probably from some bacterial decease. I've treated the tank and feed them with Sera baktotabs. It seems that the invalid is getting better but I fear that there's not enough place for my fish and that's why the bigger ones are chasing the smaller ones (hence the injury and the eye problem). So I wonder if you can give me a hand on that. Maybe the 5, 15 centimetres long catfish are too many for a 50 litre tank? I don't know what to do, because I think no store would want to take the 2 large guy from me, I don't want to buy a larger tank (I also have a 75 litres with goldfish. So what do you recommend?

Thanks in advance,
Linda

Five fishes that are 15cm long is probably a bit much for a 50l tank, yes.

I think if you ask nicely in a local store, you will find that they will take your fish, as long as they are in good condition - if you're lucky, you may even get some money for them, but that does depend on the shop, and asking for money may cause the negotiation to be harder...

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Mats

Thanks, no I would not want to ask them money, I'd just like to get them out of my tank knowing that they will be well looked after. They are beautiful and huge but quite agressive, despite the fact, that they are meant to be nice. Unfortunately I don't know anybody who would take them home, although I would be much happier to give them to someone I know.

It sounds from the size and behaviour that you have been sold as if it were the true upside-down, . If so you have been misled, and the shop should either swap them for something else or take them back and refund your money.

Maybe, unfortunately, I wasn't present while theye were bought, anyway, they are much darker, then the ones shown in pictures of nigriventris, in fact, they are all brown with darker spots. Of course, as I've grown to like them, I won't fuss about it, and I can' prove that I've been mislead anyway, I will just try to solve the situation.

I think Crysichthys point is more to the fact that if you have S. nigrita, they will continue to grow another few centimeters (assuming you look after them well, which I'm sure is your goal). This in turn means that the 50l tank may even be too small for the three that you keep if you get rid of two of the ones you have now.

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Mats

Gosh, that doesn't sound too good. I hope they won't grow more after 6 years, will they? Anyway I will call my fishman tomorrow and find out what we can do about it. Perhaps I should keep two of them. Plus it makes the situation even more complicated that the smallest one is ill at the moment, so I certainly can't give him back. I also have to consider that I'm aiming to make the tank look a bit more colorful, so I plan to get some small, nice fish, but since I'm lacking the space, I don't know what to do about it.

Since they can be a bit territorial, it's a bad idea to have two - it's better to have three or one. If you have two, there will always be one that is stronger and one that is weaker. The stronger one will beat the weaker one, and eventually the weaker one will not survive. This may take a short or a long time, depending on the agressiveness of the stronger one.

With a higher number, there's more fish to spread the agression between, and thus the weakest one isn't always beat upon by the other fish.

In an ideal world, I would say keeping all five of your fish would be the good thing to do, but in a bigger tank.

Also, fish don't stop growing like humans - the grow all their life. They just don't grow quite as quickly once the reach a certain size. The Cat-eLog lists S. nigrita as 170mm SL. SL means Standard Length, which is "without the tail-fin". So if you look at your fish now, and deduct the tail-fin, how long is it - it can grow bigger, I'm sure...

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Mats

Thanks for the info, now I'm completely confused about what should I do. It would be nice to keep all of them, but it's already quite laborous to have these two tanks. Plus, a larger, but standard type tank wouldn't fit in the shelf. Perhaps I should buy a larger tank (if I find an appropriate one) and install a professional filtrating system to ease the job.