Helo to the catfish world..

[truttle]

Hi all,

I had no idea that there was even a catfish forum, let alone people who know what they are talking about..
not a lot of them in New Zealand by the look of things. Oh please forgive my spelling as the army didn't think it was that important when I joined up at 16.

I started keeping fish 8 months ago and did all the right things, looked up on all the fish I wanted, talked to all the right people and visted all the right web sites.

I was set up and ready to go, my tank was cycled, the guppy's happy making more little guppy's, and I was sure that I had a total handle on what I was doing....

Then...... oh yes then..... on a trip to the LFS I saw a little fish sitting on the bottom of his tank looking at me...
I had never seen anything like him and just had to have him, he was as ugly as hell. but then so am I, so we made a good pair.
I paid my $12.95 and was about to walk out the door with him under arm when I remebered to go back and ask the guy what was it I had just brought...

And that was how I meet my Bristtle-nose catfish.

I sat down and tried to find out as much about my new little fish mate as I could and found that no-one knew anything about him.
The local fish club has lots of people who know little things about him, but eveyone says something different to the next.

so here is my cry for help, after coming accorss your site by accdent I have a ton of questions for you guy's but will only start with a few in case I "out ask by welcome" so to speak...

The tank sits as so...

A 145 ltr 3foot by 1foot by 2foot high.

with a group of, ever growing in numbers , guppy's. say 25.
8 neon tetra's
6 peppered cat fish (Peppered Corydoras)

and my fav fish of all.

1 male bristtle-nose who is 5 months old and 3 - 4 inch long.
1 female bristtle-nose who has only been in the tank for two days but is 2 - 3 inch long.
I got her as a friend for blowjob as I read that they should be keeped in pairs.
they haven't taken any interest in each other so far, but hey, took me 3 years to ask my wife out so he's takes after his dad and is a slow starter.

I run a Eheim pro 2 2026 filter with a peng Bio-Wheel 300.

my questions are as follows...

do I have to add a air stone for the cat fish as I have read that they need well oxyed water. or do you guys think I have enough?

and what should I be feeding them and how often?
the guy at the club said to feed once a day with that many cats and that there were to many to live together, mind you he looked like his mum had dressed him, so I wasn't that sure he knew what he was on about, he didn't have any of his own either.

Is it normal for the peppers to sit on the bottom and not move for 10 min's and to then start up again like noughing is wrong?
When I walk over they often start moving again but sometimes they just keep on sitting there.


How long do Bristtle-nose live for?

anyway that the first lot for now, and sorry for the dump of intro...
I am realy looking forward to lreaning abouut my new little freinds.

stuy[/b]

[König Löwe]

I'll try an answering a few of you questions.

It is a quite common mistake among people to believe that using airstones and airpumps puts more oxygen in the water. In fact, an air stone has allmost no effect on the O2 content of the water. The best way of getting much oxygen in the water is by having strong currents in the water surface, this is where the oxygen is "put innto" the water. As far as i can see, your Eheim 2026 should create plenty of surface current and thus, your bristlenose should be okay.

I know that Ancistrus teminckii/dolichopterus (which is probably the species you have) can live to at least 15 years of age, but if you want it to live that long, you must make sure his aquarium is not attacked by any diseases or poor water quality.

I often see my Corydoras species liying around on the bottom of the tank. I often wonder "is he dead?" because they don't move anything, not even their gills apparently. Then i sit watching a few minutes, and suddently a twitch of an eye lets me know that he's all right.

Your ancistrus is something of a beauty in comparison to some of the catfish people on this forum have *hopes not to get lectured by the other forum users*

[Jools]

You might want to put an option for none in the poll?

Jools