ARMORED CATS

[Fishman Dave]

Just to clarify, you say 250 gallon ?
so for example 6.5 ft long* 3 ft wide* 2ft deep?
that would be around 250 gal and have a footprint of just shy of 20 square feet which would be good for some more growth of those cats.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Eh,not to be critical but that seems like quite a workload for a single cannister filter.I suspect that your filtration coupled with the water changes and some of those other fish you have are impeding your cat's growth.

Agree with Krich.

Its a 250gal, my filtration is a cannister filter which i clean and do 50% water change every 2 weeks, and tankmates include pbass, clownknife, paroon shark, bichir and a wolf

1. I must assume that your water is not ammonia-free. Perhaps not nitrite-free either. You must test your water by a liquid test tube test kit.
2. If you clean your canister every 2 weeks, you might be regularly destroying some (or even most?) of the BB's (beneficial bacteria) and get your tank uncycled.
3. The water change routine might not cope with the accumulation of metabolized chemical products in the water.
4. The tank mates are zealous and boisterous feeders and far outcompete the shy and timid catfish.
5. The tank mates you list can also be aggressive and simply harass and bite the catfish, which in turn prefer to not even come out when feed is presented and you have to throw it on their heads, as you mention, because they are afraid.

Both toxic water and aggressive tank mates = stress. Stressed fish have poor or no appetite and eventually wither away, get sick because the stress suppresses their immune system, and die.

 

[spotfin]

I currently have a small (4") granulosa that eats about anything. It will come to the surface and feed from my hand.

 

[EntoStentor]

Agree with Krich.



1. I must assume that your water is not ammonia-free. Perhaps not nitrite-free either. You must test your water by a liquid test tube test kit.
2. If you clean your canister every 2 weeks, you might be regularly destroying some (or even most?) of the BB's (beneficial bacteria) and get your tank uncycled.
3. The water change routine might not cope with the accumulation of metabolized chemical products in the water.
4. The tank mates are zealous and boisterous feeders and far outcompete the shy and timid catfish.
5. The tank mates you list can also be aggressive and simply harass and bite the catfish, which in turn prefer to not even come out when feed is presented and you have to throw it on their heads, as you mention, because they are afraid.

Both toxic water and aggressive tank mates = stress. Stressed fish have poor or no appetite and eventually wither away, get sick because the stress suppresses their immune system, and die.

+1 as usual. I agree with viktor. I think the biggest problem is the tankmates. With tankmates like that the cats are not going to get any food. At all. Even if they had an appetite (not stressed from water toxicity), they'd get the food taken out of their mouths, assuming it could get there.

 

[krichardson]

....not to mention the chemical substances that larger and dominant fish excrete that hinders the growth of other fish,more water changes would help address that.

 

[Tobiassorensen]

I agree with all of the above. Stress and aggressive tankmates slowly kills shy cats.
Ive never kept neither granolosus or niger cats but from what i understand they are quite shy cats. Ive only kept agressive feeding cats and still do and they compete hard with my 5 cichlas and three large rays as they are out and about searching for food all the time.

 

[aes1687]

Agree with Krich.



1. I must assume that your water is not ammonia-free. Perhaps not nitrite-free either. You must test your water by a liquid test tube test kit.
2. If you clean your canister every 2 weeks, you might be regularly destroying some (or even most?) of the BB's (beneficial bacteria) and get your tank uncycled.
3. The water change routine might not cope with the accumulation of metabolized chemical products in the water.
4. The tank mates are zealous and boisterous feeders and far outcompete the shy and timid catfish.
5. The tank mates you list can also be aggressive and simply harass and bite the catfish, which in turn prefer to not even come out when feed is presented and you have to throw it on their heads, as you mention, because they are afraid.

Both toxic water and aggressive tank mates = stress. Stressed fish have poor or no appetite and eventually wither away, get sick because the stress suppresses their immune system, and die.

I will get my water tested and have ordered another canister. However, the tankmates I mentioned may intimidate the catfish, their diets that I give them are different. All the other tankmates are given live feeders which they eat, and the two catfish get pellets. The peacocks and the rest do not bother touching any pellets at all. But being intimidated and not wanting to come out does make sense and I will see what i can do to move them.

Thank you all for your inputs!

 

[Tobiassorensen]

I will get my water tested and have ordered another canister. However, the tankmates I mentioned may intimidate the catfish, their diets that I give them are different. All the other tankmates are given live feeders which they eat, and the two catfish get pellets. The peacocks and the rest do not bother touching any pellets at all. But being intimidated and not wanting to come out does make sense and I will see what i can do to move them.

Thank you all for your inputs!

Id say two cannisters is not enough for your bioload at all. You might be able to get around it with a heavy waterchange schedule but only then. You should look into showerfilters or a sump with an pipeoverflow.

And IMHO id say stop feed live feeders. Get the fish on to frozen food. Once that is done you can break them to into feeding pellets.

Live feeders comes with nothing good at all.

 

[aes1687]

Id say two cannisters is not enough for your bioload at all. You might be able to get around it with a heavy waterchange schedule but only then. You should look into showerfilters or a sump with an pipeoverflow.

And IMHO id say stop feed live feeders. Get the fish on to frozen food. Once that is done you can break them to into feeding pellets.

Live feeders comes with nothing good at all.

I am slowly introducing them to frozen food, but probably only once in 2 weeks. Will try do that more often.

And for the sump filtration I really looked into it but actually do not know how to set up one, nor can I find someone in my country who could help with that.

 

[Tobiassorensen]

I am slowly introducing them to frozen food, but probably only once in 2 weeks. Will try do that more often.

And for the sump filtration I really looked into it but actually do not know how to set up one, nor can I find someone in my country who could help with that.

You should try to starve them for a week or two the offer them frozen foods.

A sump is not complicated at all. It is pretty straight forward. Water goes out by gravity from the tank to a barrel, plastic tote or an old tank through mechanical and biological media and the back to the tank via a returnline from a pump.

You can always buy a hang on back overflowbox.