Is there a catfish for me?

[melissa73]

I am new to all this and just got a 20 gallon aquarium. I try to be an informed aquarium keeper and make sure everything is just right. It has been set up for a month now, and I have10 fish total, that have been added slowly. I have 6 glo fish, one guppy and 3 Pristella Tetras. I am interested in adding cory's, but everything I read says that they must be kept in schools of 6 or more for them to properly thrive. Is this true, or could I add 2-3?
I have also looked at the otocinclus, but heard they were a bit hard to keep alive. Do they need to be in large schools?
I would appreciate any advice regarding the best catfish to get for my 20 gallon.
THANKS!!

[MatsP]

I guarantee you that we will be able to find you a catfish - there are after all about 2500 different species just in the Cat-eLog - and a few more that aren't in the Cat-eLog, but those are also unlikely to turn up in your local fish shop.

Corys do indeed do best in groups of 5 or more - the same applies to Otocinclus species. In nature, both of these types of fish will [as a general rule] live in groups of several dozen or even many hundreds.

It is hard to say how many fish should go in a tank, but for small tanks and small fish, the "one inch of fish per gallon" works fairly well. I think your fish are about an inch each when fully grown (the pristellas will reach up to 2"), which makes it 10-13 inches. You still have about 7 inches of space - 5 mid-sized corys will go fine in there. Likewise for Oto's - but not both.

Where in Texas are you (you don't have to give us a small town-name, but a general area, e.g. Dallas Area or San Antonia Area) would help us further with knowing for example what your water conditions and recommending shops, for example. If you add that to your profile "location" information, we don't have to ask in the future. [It is of course voluntary to give this information - if you don't want to, then you don't have to].

--
Mats

[sojapat]

A few Ideas , Cory habrosus,Cory Pygmaeus,Cory Napoensis, small readily available fish ?
Instead of ottocinclus why not get a pair of Ancistrus claro good cleaner and may be a breeding project for you in the future?They are easy to keep and more long lived than otto's

[melissa73]

I am in the Dallas area. I tend to have very hard water and use Prime in it with all new water. I do a 50% water change weekly, and currently the nitrate is 0 and nitrite is .05 and the ammonia is at 0 as well. I am not very familiar with water hardness, do I need to add something to the aquarium to help with that? On my test strip, it shows as the highest with gh at180 and kh at about 180.
So, it is true that they must live in good sized groups. If I decide not to have a large group, is there a catfish that I could have one or 2 only of? I have not heard of the Ancistrus Claro, so I will start to research that tonight.
Thanks for the advice.

[MatsP]

There are plenty of catfish that can/should be kept alone. Ancistrus are fine on their own - in fact if you have two of opposite sex, they behave a bit like rabbits - you will very soon have lots more than two. Which can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing.

There is NOTHING you can add to water to remove hardness [well, at least not anything that you can trivially add - if you filter your water through literally hundreds of pounds of peat, you can probably remove enough hardness to make a difference. But that's just insane]. Despite of what many people say, hardness and high pH isn't such a big deal unless you are trying to breed more exotic species of fish.

I know large parts of Texas has high hardness and alkaline water - I've spent several weeks in Austin - long enough to realize that the Edwards Aquifer is basically a whole load of chalk with water sitting in it - that makes HARD WATER. Same as here in England.

But most fish are pretty tolerant to hard water. So you should be fine.

5-6 fish, in my opinion, is not a large group. It is a small group.

By the way, your tetras probably should be in a group of more than three. They are definitely social fish, and need some of their own kind to feel happy and comfortable.

--
Mats

[apistomaster]

Common Bushy Nose, Ancistrus cirhosus, are the one you will find in your local fish shops. They come in normal, albino, calico and normal length and long finned varieties of each color form.

Ancistrus claro would be excellent in an ideal world but the reality is that they are difficult to find and expensive to buy in the USA.
If you ask a owner if they ever get Ancistrus claro and they say no buy from them. Probably only 10% at most will even know what fish you are asking for so anyone who does know what you are talking about is probably the more knowledgeable fish guide.

[selvan777]

HI,

Can a single Ancistrus claro be kept with any of the dwarf Corydoras?

[MatsP]

HI,

Can a single Ancistrus claro be kept with any of the dwarf Corydoras?

Yes, should be fine.

Obviously, when combining multiple species, all parameters (such as temperature, pH, etc) and overall stocking levels must be considered, as well as "does X go with Y".

--
Mats

[selvan777]

I'm in the same boat as the original poster with limited space in a 20 long.

I was wanting 6 otos and 6 dwarf corys but I think I'll replace the otos with a single claro and keep just 4 dwarfs.

My fish stock is as follows in my signature, what do you think?