Obtaining catfish for new tank

[Moontanman]

Over the last few days I have been looking at catfish suitable for my next aquarium. I started out by looking at catfish of abiout 3.5" and smaller but let me start out by discribing my new tank. It will be 96 inches long (about 244 CM) 36 inches wide (92CM)and 24 inches tall(61CM) and about 359 gallons or 1581 liters. this tank will be set up so that the tank is outside in a small greenhouse with the front of the tank against the wall of the house. You will be able to sit inside the house and look into the tank wich will be lighted by ambiant sunlight with a couple of supplement lights for the evening and night. I will have cypress trees, water elos, mangroves, and swamp apples. along with several emergent plants. In toher words this will be a pond you can see into from the comfort of your evening chair. more later

[Moontanman]

Ok now that you have some idea of how the aquarium will work lets go back to what I want to put into it. Once I started looking at community type catfish I realized what an impossible task I had set for my self. After I had finally cut the list down to around 100 fish and this didn't count any of the non catfish I wanted to keep! At this point I have to cut the list down by eleminating all the catfish that are unobtainium! This will be a difficult thing to do since I have no idea which catfish are obtianable and which are just teasers that I will never see I guess I could list the ones I like on the my cats list and everyone can point out which ones are not going to be available and which ones are! For the record I plan on there being lots of cardinal tetras. Here is a list of non catfish I plan to keep at least most of them in the 359 gallon tank. the live foods I plan to use are at the end of this list.

COOLIE LOACH
DWARF BOTIA
Dwarf Indian puffer

CHERRY BARB

BUMBLE BEE GOBIE
DWARF GOURAMI
CELEBES RAINBOW FISH
CELEBES HALF BEAK
CARDINAL TETRA
GLOW LIGHT TETRA
RUMMY NOSE TETRA
SILVER TIP TETRA
MARBLED HATCHET FISH


MOSQUITO FISH
WHITE CLOUDS
Tongue sole F/W
FLOUNDER F/W
GLASS KNIFE FISH
ELEPHANT NOSE FISH
BABY WHALES (mormyrids)


ROPE FISH
DRAGON EEL
DWARF MUDPUPPY
Dwarf sirens

GLASS SHRIMP
CLAMS
MUSSELS
CRABS
Dwarf Crayfish
BEE SHRIMP
Isopods Gammerus
Rotifers
Daphnia
Cyclops Black worms
Tubifex worms

[hellocatfish]

Hmm...it looks like you have got some seriously small fish on that list for such a large tank that you will be viewing from a bit of a distance!

And Kuhli loaches like to keep out of sight a lot of the time. My dad had some that would come out during the day even though they are supposed to be nocturnal and shy. But still--we didn't see them that often. And some of your crabs and shrimp might try to snack on them, since they do tend to be burrowers down where the crabs and shrimp would be. If I understand your post correctly and you will be viewing the tank through a window or some other opening from inside the house, will you be near enough to see a fish that is small and hides a lot? It might be a bother and expense to have that fish on your list, considering you won't likely be able to enjoy it.

And as for daphnia and tubifex, are they on your list as what you plan to be feeding, or what you hope to live IN the tank with your fish? I ask because it's my understanding that tubifex need to live in some filthy conditions that you definitely wouldn't want in your tank.

Some of the fish on your list are likely to eat the cardinal tetras. The dwarf gourami might find the size of the tank and the brisk activity of some of the faster moving shoaling fish to be stressful.

There are some pretty catfish that might do very well and be entertaining in the setup you are planning, but they are of a size and habit that make them a risk to cardinal tetras. I'm thinking of Pictus cats, and some of the synodontis. What cats do you like, by the way? Don't worry about whether you can find them, for now. It would be interesting to see your wishlist of catfish and see if we can help you search the CatELog for ones that would do all right with the tank environment and the cardinal tetras.

[hellocatfish]

Oops, sorry...just saw your "My Cats" list. I totally missed that because I was thinking it was what you already had vs. what you wanted to have. I did the same thing...I had put the debawi cat on my "My Cats" list, too, thinking I was bookmarking it as something I was interested in. Then I realized the My Cats feature was to let other people know what we already own.

Anyway, those are nice cats to have on your list. Again, kind of small, but if you have schools of them and if they are truly compatible with one another, they could be pretty & very impressive in your tank. I have not seen any of them in my region, and we have a pretty good selection of fish in some of our LFS's. I used to see lots of glass cats but not so much lately. When I get another chance to search the web I'll see if I can find any possible sources for you.

[Moontanman]

The whole idea is to have lots of small fish in a large aquarium. the tank will be set in the wall, nothing will be between the tank front and the veiwer. Giving the fish a place to hide is what this aquarium is all about. Fish will be able to go in and come out of hiding at their own will. Being able to hide when they want gives fish the confidence to come out more often. Not being able to hide streses fish and makes them nervous and prone to jumping out of the aquarium, None of the crusteceans I have will be prone to bothering the fishes. More likely the fish will from time to time catch the crusteceans when they are molting and eat them. None of the catfish I want to keep will bother the tetras. I have been keeping most of these fish for many years with no problems as for the tubifex worms they live in filthy conditions becasue fish don't not because they have to. If there are no fish tubifex worms will live anywhere. But the worms and other small creatures are there as fish food and only transient inhabitants of the aquarium. If feed in large amounts live food will survive in the aquarium so that there are always small creatures moving around the tank just like in any lake or stream. Here is a partial list of some of the fish and other animals I am considering. I don't know why it keeps coming out scrambled like this. I hope you can figure it out.

Cetopsis montana, Synodontis, multimaculatus, Cetopsidiumcf.pemon, Hummingbirdcatfish, Tatia perugiae, Cetopsis umbrosa, DEBAUWI CATS GLASS CATS, CLOWN PLECOSTOMUS, UPSIDE DOWN CAT PANDA OR SKUNK CORY CAT, BANJO CATS, BUMBLE BEE CATS Microsynodontis batesii, FLAGTAIL PORTHOLE CATS, Hyalobagrus flavus COOLIE LOACH, DWARF BOTIA, Dwarf Indian puffer OCTICULATUS ALGEA EATER, CHERRY BARB BUMBLE BEE GOBIE, DWARF GOURAMI, CELEBES RAINBOW FISH CELEBES HALF BEAK, CARDINAL TETRA, GLOW LIGHT TETRA
RUMMY NOSE TETRA, SILVER TIP TETRA
MARBLED HATCHET FISH, Galaxy Rasbora, Blue tetra MOSQUITO FISH, WHITE CLOUDS, Tongue sole F/W FLOUNDER F/W, GLASS KNIFE FISH, ELEPHANT NOSE FISH BABY WHALES, ROPE FISH, DRAGON EEL, DWARF MUDPUPPY Dwarf sirens

GLASS SHRIMP, CLAMS, MUSSELS, CRABS Dwarf Crayfish, BEE SHRIMP, Caridina shrimp, Isopods Gammerus, Rotifers, Daphnia, Cyclops, Black worms Tubifex worms

Hmm...it looks like you have got some seriously small fish on that list for such a large tank that you will be viewing from a bit of a distance!

And Kuhli loaches like to keep out of sight a lot of the time. My dad had some that would come out during the day even though they are supposed to be nocturnal and shy. But still--we didn't see them that often. And some of your crabs and shrimp might try to snack on them, since they do tend to be burrowers down where the crabs and shrimp would be. If I understand your post correctly and you will be viewing the tank through a window or some other opening from inside the house, will you be near enough to see a fish that is small and hides a lot? It might be a bother and expense to have that fish on your list, considering you won't likely be able to enjoy it.

And as for daphnia and tubifex, are they on your list as what you plan to be feeding, or what you hope to live IN the tank with your fish? I ask because it's my understanding that tubifex need to live in some filthy conditions that you definitely wouldn't want in your tank.

Some of the fish on your list are likely to eat the cardinal tetras. The dwarf gourami might find the size of the tank and the brisk activity of some of the faster moving shoaling fish to be stressful.

There are some pretty catfish that might do very well and be entertaining in the setup you are planning, but they are of a size and habit that make them a risk to cardinal tetras. I'm thinking of Pictus cats, and some of the synodontis. What cats do you like, by the way? Don't worry about whether you can find them, for now. It would be interesting to see your wishlist of catfish and see if we can help you search the CatELog for ones that would do all right with the tank environment and the cardinal tetras.