Upside Down Catfish

[littletankbigworld]

How do I make my upside-down cat feel more at home? I feel bad I only have one, but I cannot buy more fish for awhile, and I'm not sure if another synodontis nigriventris fits into my 29 gallon plan at all. The cat mostly hides all day under the leaves of plants, as is the norm for most upside down cats. I'd like to see him a bit more during the day. Do you think he would come out more if I built a cave or an archway?

 

[bassbonediva]

Probably not. My guy hides almost constantly, but he does come out and "socialize" at night. It's actually rather funny to see a 2" USD cat socializing with the female bettas and the female guppies. I bet your guy would feel more at ease if you had a nice rock cave or piece of driftwood for him to hang out around. In the 46gal, I had a nice system of rock caves and Alistar (my USD cat) ruled it completely. No one else was allowed in there unless he said so. Same thing goes for the dino skull in the 10gal he's in now (temporary until the 55gal gets up and cycled). He was out this morning when I went to turn on the lights, though. Scared the crap out of the little guy, too. lol

 

[Robin's Nest]

I love these guys. I have two "Can't Get Right" & "Wing Nut". They are the funniest things to watch. These two socialize more than I read others do. Yes, they love their hiding places, driftwood and clay pot cubby holes. Every so often, just before lights out, I drop in a small portion of Tubiflex Worms and here they come to the top. It's funny to watch them compete with the Cory's. I know your not supposed to have favorite baby's but I think these are mine. :0}

 

[littletankbigworld]

Once he came out during the day and hung out near the surface of the water. I always drop shrimp pellets or algae waffers in the tank at night and in the morning, but I worry that the cories and otos are eating them before he gets a chance.

 

[bassbonediva]

If he's the same size or bigger than the otos and cories (my guy has about half an inch on my otos), he's more than likely getting his fair share.

 

[tonymac]

Anything that gives them shade from the Aquarium light will make them feel more at home. Floating plants work great as would driftwood. What I do for UD cats is I lean a peice of slate against the veiwing side of the Aquarium. That way you'll get to observe him while he feels protected from the bright Aq light and the activities of your Diurnal fish.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Good idea tonymac. Thank you.

And bass, he is about 2.5 inches and so is my cory. The otos range from 1 inch to 1.5 inches.

 

[lauraf]

Anything that gives them shade from the Aquarium light will make them feel more at home. Floating plants work great as would driftwood. What I do for UD cats is I lean a peice of slate against the veiwing side of the Aquarium. That way you'll get to observe him while he feels protected from the bright Aq light and the activities of your Diurnal fish.

Would that also work for my multipunctatus? He is usually hiding at the back of my tank out of view unless its feeding time - though when I bought him, he and his playmates were swimming up and down the front of the aquarium.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Sorry, I don't know much about multipunctatus. It's worth a try, though.

 

[tonymac]

It should work for a Multipunctatus. The only difficulty you might have is since your tank seems well established the Multi probably already has a favorite hiding place and the trick is getting him to trade up to the peice of slate leaning against a visible side of the glass. To do this you have to deprive of of his favorite hiding place by removing it, whatever that may be.

 

[lauraf]

Thanks Tony - if you look at my thread in the General Discussion Forum you will see that my tank went through a recent challenge (CO2 disaster). I added a second multi for company after I commented on this thread a couple of weeks ago, and a cave made from a split terra cotta pot. Anyway, after the yeast infiltration a couple of days ago, one of my multi's didn't make it. So now I have just the newer one, and he seems to be rallying after I thought he was a goner earlier today.
I'm responding to your thread not only to, well, respond to your thread, but you introduced a new concept to me about the behaviour of this multi: even when he had his partner, he was always wedging himself at the corner of the tank between the heater and the glass. He seems to love that spot. I really don't want to cause any more trauma to my fish right now, but at a later point do you think I should move the heater away from the corner so the multi will move around more??? I'd love to see him more often, and he has explored the new cave that offers prime viewing for me while protecting him, but I don't want to cause any undue stress by removing a favoured sweet spot.

 

[tonymac]

Sorry it took so long for me to respond. If you had health issues with your fish you probably should wait for awhile before you start moving and rearranging the decor and equipment of your aquarium, as this will stress the fish further, especially fish like catfish that like to fixate on a "favorite" spot. You have to judge how long for yourself based on how well your aquarium does over time

 

[lauraf]

Thanks Tony - my tank recovered pretty quickly, and my LFS was so horrified by my CO2 issue that the owner said she would replace my multipunctatus for free. So I took her up on that a week ago when I was sure my water paramaters were back to normal. Both multis are still resting beside the heater quite a bit, but now they are also fairly active on one side of the tank along the bottom, and frequently hang out in my terra cotta cave. It's progress!

 

[lauraf]

Hey Tony et. al. - my two multis are hanging out together in my terra cotta cave all the time now where I can see them, and they are looking super relaxed - not hunkering against the heater anymore. They also go out and wriggle around the tank rocks and plants, super active. I see them lots now - they are really neat!