Belonoglanis tenuis

[Loracidlover]

Hello.

What can you guys tell me about this fish? I have the opportunity to buy some of a shipment of about 120 that have appeared recently from the Congo. How often do they come up for sale? Does anybody have any experience with them in aquaria, feeding, attitude, general care etc.? The Cat-eLog suggests a high hardness for keeping them (dH18), is this particularly important or are they fairly adaptable like some other african cats?

Any advice gratefully recieved, Conrad

[sidguppy]

I've kept a few Belonoglanis years ago, about halfway the nineties

IME they are incredible fragile......they ship bad, they don't eat or if they do, anything distracts them from the meal, they need pristine water and loads of oxygen and they usually arrive already dead or dying

mine lasted less than 3 weeks and the rest of the shipment (I picked them up at the importer) went bad and dead quite fast too

definitely one for the speciestank. anything bigger than a baby guppy will scare the hell out of them and these are among the most fragile and hardest to keep alive catfishes I've ever seen and I've seen a few.

oh, btw they don't accept flake and few frozen food
live food is the way to go. chopped up tubifex, bloodworms, artemia nauplii, that kind of stuff.

[Loracidlover]

Thanks for the quick reply sidguppy. Hmmm, sounds like one to avoid, seeing as how I haven't really got the space and time to "bottlefeed" them in a species tank. Still, a shame, very cool looking fish, and I doubt I'll see any more for a while.
Cheers.