My Gulper Catfish - Asterophysus batrachus

[ShanerBock888]

I can only hope I helped.

You can find more interesting gulper info here, especially from Koltsixx https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/jaguar-vs-gulper-catfish.680804/

absolutely you did. It's always good to know when to worry and when it's just fish being fish. I contacted the seller and they informed me that they were feeding them live fish, which may be part of the issue. I would like to avoid the potential problems with feeders, so I'm going to hold out for a bit before I cave in and go that route. thanks for the link, i actually read that one while I was in the research stages, definitely helpful.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

You shouldn't need to cave IMHO. They will. If it takes even a month, so be it, but I expect in the absence of any stress, they should learn to take the dead fish within 1-2 weeks.

 

[ShanerBock888]

So close! It's day 9 and they still haven't eaten, but the little guy just had a piece of shrimp entirely in his mouth and then spit it out, twice... not quite eating but it's encouraging!

I've loved this species for a while now, but after keeping them for just 9 days I absolutely love them. They're surprisingly active, not timid at all, and very interactive. They've definitely moved to close to the top of my all-time favorites list. Now if only they would eat!

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

In good water and being stress-free, they will. It is obviously heading that way. It is similar to Pavlov dog training. They need to learn that this is food and it takes time, patience, and consistency.

 

[ShanerBock888]

I actually just checked and the bigger guy ate a piece. So that means one is eating and the other is just short of swallowing. You're right about the pavlovian training, when the little one was taking it in his mouth you could tell he wasn't quite sure it was food. And I think it actually makes sense that of all my fish, the ones that eat the fewest biggest meals are the ones that go the longest before taking food.

 

[jaws7777]

I actually just checked and the bigger guy ate a piece. So that means one is eating and the other is just short of swallowing. You're right about the pavlovian training, when the little one was taking it in his mouth you could tell he wasn't quite sure it was food. And I think it actually makes sense that of all my fish, the ones that eat the fewest biggest meals are the ones that go the longest before taking food.

Interesting man, im experiencing this with some small ca cichlids. You could tell they wanna eat the small pellets and brine shrimp but really dont know what the heck they are doing with it.
Glad they are eating man

 

[ShanerBock888]

Finally got the little one to eat! took 20 days but he finally took a piece of shrimp. The bigger one has eaten a couple times but the smaller guy just refused to do it. He just kept mouthing it, and trying to bang the meat against the wall like they do with live fish, but would always end up dropping it. Really glad he finally ate, I was starting to consider feeders!

 

[brent245]

I've considered these for some time. Does water harness matter much to these guys? I have very hard water and my understanding is they come from very soft water. Does that even matter as long as the water parameters are stable?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I doubt it. It appears they can adapt to moderately hard water but very hard water may be too much to handle. People getting them for the first time often report their gulpers developing skin problems, often losing appetite over time and wasting away. But it's hard to say how much this is due to water hardness and instability and how much to something else, like ammonia. They are said to be very sensitive to traces of ammonia, nitrite, etc. The water must be pristine in this regard.

 

[jwd]

Glad they're eating for you. Funny that I found this thread because I was thinking about getting a couple for my home aquarium and I also plan to buy them from Wetspot. I've been trying to get rid of my wife's 3 goldfish for over a year and this would be fun to have. I plan to order them from Wetspot as well. They have 5"ers right now so I'll get those and a couple more polys for my office aquarium.