Catfish compatability

[Lycosid]

I currently have a tank at home that houses a twig catfish (probably

Farlowella vittata

), a juvenile

Common Bristlenose Catfish

, and three

Otocinclus vittatus

. There were originally six otos, but three didn't make it through the first week. The remaining three musketeers seem to be doing well.

The tank is a 20-gallon long (30" x 12" x 12", 76.2cm x 30.5cm x 30.5 cm) with another fifteen gallons of water held in various sections of the filter. There's a big stick of "driftwood" propped up on a large rock, an Amazon sword, some java moss, a "banana plant", and some random aquatic grass the grows like nobody's business. The substrate is sand.

Currently the tank is easy to feed because everyone is mostly vegetarian. There's always a microwaved kale leaf stuck to the side of the tank and a blob of homemade vegetable scraps + canned shrimp in agar, which seems to be adored by the BN.

I'd like to add a few more species, but my experience with mixed species tanks is...this one. All my work tanks are single-species. I'm most interested in

Corydoras trilineatus

both because I'd like something stirring up the bottom (and maybe clipping the runners on the aquatic grass) and because they are very attractive fish. However, this will be a fish that eats somewhat different food and is probably a bit more boisterous than my current residents. Will this be an issue? I have no experience attempting to combine species of different baseline activity levels or diets.

Other species under consideration are

Bunocephalus coracoideus

,

Hemiloricaria eigenmanni

(well, whatever "whiptail catfish" at the LFS actually is), and

Microglanis iheringi

. Obviously two of these are also pretty low-energy fish.

Ultimately I'm planning on moving this collection to a 55 gallon, but the tank stand for that one isn't pretty enough for my wife to let it out in public yet. If the answer is "wait until then" for some of these that's also useful to know.

[bekateen]

Hi Lycosid,

I wouldn't think twice about adding a few (3-5) trilineatus to that tank. You'll have to adjust your feeding a little, but with 15 gal in the filtration, I think you're safe.

Good luck, Eric

[Martin S]

I'd say you could also get one Bunocephalus coracoideus (or, as you said re: the whiptails, whatever species the LFS actually has, could be

Bunocephalus colombianus

and sometimes you might see

Bunocephalus verrucosus

). With a sand base, it will bury itself a lot, and you may only ever see a tail but still an interesting species to keep, and as you say, low-energy!