Q about Salmon Cats

[Vertigo]

Hey guys, just registered with the site and have a question right off the bat ^^

I have a set-up that includes two salmon cats and while the look awesome, they are kinda.... boring.... The will spend the entire day nestled together in a corner lying on the gravel and barely moving (they snuggle but thats about it). There is nothing wrong with them - they are a vibrant black, their skin and fins look great and they are very quick when they want to be (at food time) but i only ever see them cruising at night when there is next to no light and then only occasionally. When they were younger however they were very active and exciting to watch.

I know they have sonar and probably prefer a very dimly lit environment but is there any way to encourage them to move around a bit more?

To give you an idea of my setup, i have a 4 X 2 foot tank (which makes it just under 450L) with these 2 salmontail cats (about 20 cm long) and an Oscar (about 12 cm long, but nice and chunky ^.^), an undergravel filter, a bubble wall along theback and an out of tank filter that moves about 1250L/H. The water conditions are consistently good and i keep the temp at 26.5-27deg celcius.

Thanks for your consideration,
-V3r7ig0

[Silurus]

The only way I see if you want to observe your fish during the day is to situate the tank in a dimly-lit room, and have two sets of lights (one regular and the other simulated moonlight such as a Triton Blue Moon). You can reverse the day-night cycle (i.e. have the "night" light come on during the day and vice versa), which should make the catfish active during the hours you are awake (the ambient light in the room should not be too bright for this to work).
Alternatively, you can just have two sets of lights as above set to switch on at their "regular" times and just observe your catfishes after dark.