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Gulper catfish trio, ~7"

One of the 7 new gulpers died. We got them 2 months ago. It did ok for a few weeks and then stopped feeding and very slowly withered away over the last 1.5 months, while the rest have been doing well in the same tank. So I can only pen it to an unknown reason. 9" / 23 cm final size. Age unknown but likely several years.


The damage on the tail is post-mortem by a pleco tank mate.

Check out the impressive tooth patches! Gotta hold on to large prey. The jaws are rather soft and flexible too, snake-like, can open incredibly wide, like 180 degrees... probably for the same reason.

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The remaining 7 gulpers have been doing well. Here is a typical weekly feeding - everyone is getting a 6"-8" VitaChem-fortified herring or two:

 
Glad to see gulpers living long happy lives in captivity, which sadly doesn’t happen very often. It gives me some hope for my new gulper. I am a little confused though on wether it’s better to feed small meals more often or large meals periodically. Or if it’s better to start small and work up to larger foods. Also where can I find Vita Chem?
 
No, not often at all. They are not an easy fish to keep. IDK on the meals. Logically, I'd think it might be good to mimic nature - sometimes they catch something small, sometimes something big, sometimes every week, sometimes once in a couple of weeks, etc. I think the quality, balanced nutrition is far, far more important than quantity and frequency. IDK if VitaChem is available worldwide but in the USA one can buy it at LFS and online. It's not the only option in the US and in the world I am sure. But it's one proven option for me.
 
Caught one of our gulpers biting (playfully? no damage) fins of another gulper. I have never seen it before with our gulpers.

One peer reported to us in a personal conversation that his two young and small (4") gulpers used to live well together but then started biting biting each other's fins to the point where they have almost no fins now.

Has anyone seen it, can shed light on it??

 
I’ve had my gulper for five days now. He looks healthy, 5-6 inches. He’s in a 40b by himself. He’s still hasn’t eaten. He showed some interest in thawed tilapia but that’s it. Should I just wait it out and let him build up an appetite? Or is there something else I’m not considering?
 
Assuming that temperature, water parameters and other environmental factors are correct, then I think the only thing you aren't considering is the fact that the fish has been in a new home for only five days. That's nothing, for almost any species. A fish that is adapted to swallow food items as large as its own body has developed this adaptation in order to take advantage of occasional huge windfalls of food...which in turn suggests that it regularly goes long periods of time without any food at all. Five days for a fish like that is practically an eyeblink. Be patient.
 
jjohnwm said:
Assuming that temperature, water parameters and other environmental factors are correct, then I think the only thing you aren't considering is the fact that the fish has been in a new home for only five days. That's nothing, for almost any species. A fish that is adapted to swallow food items as large as its own body has developed this adaptation in order to take advantage of occasional huge windfalls of food...which in turn suggests that it regularly goes long periods of time without any food at all. Five days for a fish like that is practically an eyeblink. Be patient.
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I figured that’s probably what it was
 
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