Rescued raphael catfish..Questions.
- Thread starter Kaosu
- Start date
Indeed that is a spotted Raphael! Also known as a barking or talking catfish. A healthy one will make a sound that sounds like a duck quack when threatened. But with all the armor, they don't really feel threatened until they are taken out of water. I have one of these that is about 10 years old and 7" long.
For feeding, like someone else said, anything. In the 10 years I've had my Raphael, I've never seen him eat. I just feed the other fish in the tank and he eats whatever's left. They can really go with any other fish. Aggressive fish are not a threat as the Raphael has crazy armor (mine has cut my hand a couple times) and they are very peaceful. I don't, however, recommend neon tetras as they sleep on the bottom and this guy will scoop them up (learned the hard way, at least I THINK the Raphael was the one eating them).
Obviously you need to get your tank in a healthier state, but don't worry about it for this guys sake. You couldn't kill it even if you tried.
Awesome fish! Enjoy!
Sent from my LG-P509 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
For feeding, like someone else said, anything. In the 10 years I've had my Raphael, I've never seen him eat. I just feed the other fish in the tank and he eats whatever's left. They can really go with any other fish. Aggressive fish are not a threat as the Raphael has crazy armor (mine has cut my hand a couple times) and they are very peaceful. I don't, however, recommend neon tetras as they sleep on the bottom and this guy will scoop them up (learned the hard way, at least I THINK the Raphael was the one eating them).
Obviously you need to get your tank in a healthier state, but don't worry about it for this guys sake. You couldn't kill it even if you tried.
Awesome fish! Enjoy!
Sent from my LG-P509 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
thank you for the reapply
heay his tummy is pretty big!!
I was thinking of putting him in with my sculpin..who really ignores anything if its not a pellet or small sleeping fish on the ground..
"Obviously you need to get your tank in a healthier state"..? he is a rescue out of those conditions..all of my tanks are in a healthy state FYI..
he is in a 10g QT tank for the next month or so to make sure he is healthy.Yea, they love neon tetras. They will slowly disappear every night. Its almost like a delicacy for them.
thank you for the reapply
heay his tummy is pretty big!!
I was thinking of putting him in with my sculpin..who really ignores anything if its not a pellet or small sleeping fish on the ground..
"Obviously you need to get your tank in a healthier state"..? he is a rescue out of those conditions..all of my tanks are in a healthy state FYI..
Got ya! I misunderstood and thought it was currently in the 75. Good for you for getting it out of there! Hope all the other info was helpful!
Sent from my LG-P509 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
It would be really interesting to know what was the root cause of stunting.
Maybe could have been just a genetics problem as well.
Maybe could have been just a genetics problem as well.
Nice Catfish man! Looks like a spotted Raphael to me, not stunted, these and the Striped Raphael (Ive got 1 male 4 inches long) look like tennis balls with tails haha.Very greedy, have to be careful not to over feed them. They seem to hide all day, come out at night. My Stripped Raphael also suffered from cloudy eyes, my theory is because they wedge themselves in tight spots, spending a lot of the time face down in the substrate they are almost lying in their own crap, regular water changes and smaller food fed clean up the eyes. Healthy Catfish have long whiskers, yours seems to be very healthy. Good choice with sand as well, mine digs in the sand.
I have a striped raphael catfish. Mine is not shy at all, in fact he spends most the time laying out in the open. My cat is probably about 5-6 inches, I've had him for around 2 years now. He eats everything and anything. He will eat guppies and take pellets from the surface, as well as sinking pellets.