So I bought an upside down catfish, and...

[michellefl]

he came with a friend I guess. I noticed there were very tiny snails in the tank with him at the lfs. I watched carefully, as I didn't want snails...and when I put him in, I checked the water from the bag, and there was no snail in there.

I can only surmise a snail was attached to the catfish, and when i scooped him out of the bag, the snail came too.

I don't really have much info on snails, as I wasn't looking to add a snail to my tank. So now I am not really sure what to do? I have a couple live plants. Will he eat them up?

Also - does anyone have this type of catfish, and are they typically Psycho? He hides in my pirate ship most of the day - then a few times aday he makes multiple rapid spins around the tank all along the side the top then bottom, then repeat. Just wondering if this it normal fish behavior. He reminds me of a puppy when they are just so wound up they don't know what to do with them self.

 

[brian1973]

as for the snail..it wont hurt anything..I have never seen them eat any plants..they do seem to multiply by themselves though...If you have seen some of my posts I have tanks that I have never seen snails in then they appear...I would suspect your live plants as what brought the snail into the tank though, they commonly have eggs on them, and the snails are so small when young they are hard to see.

 

[TMony]

Hi Michelle
These little catfish do appear slightly psycho sometimes. They seem to go 100mph everywhere they go and will eat just about anything. Do you have a place for it to hide? They like to have a dark place to hang out. Mine always zipped around the tank eating what they could find and then race back to their cave. They do better in small groups and scan the tank together looking for things to eat. They are very friendly and not usually afraid of anything.

Do you happen to know the type of snail? Can you describe it?

 

[michellefl]

So apparently I have THREE snails!! OMG - where did they come from - lol....

They are very small - think the size of the head of a pen cap? maybe a bit smaller actually...and the shell is a golden brown with spots/polkadots on it. they move faster than I thought they would.

I do have a pirate ship that has a nice dark space in it. We had a nice fluffy plant that died. I must not have had the right light conditions on it or something. The other plants seem fine. So I will prob get another small hiding place and small plant for the tank this weekend.

Do I need to have more than one to make him happy? I think I am at the top of my tank population now...

I have a 20 gallon with 6 small glowlights and three red tetras. My plan was to get 2 ghost shrimp. But they haven't gotten them in here in weeks. So I decided to go with the catfish.

U-D catfish 4 inches
glowlights 6x1.5 inches =9 inches
red tetras 3x2 inches =6

I have no idea what the snails mean, though I suspect their bioload at this point is tiny...

Maybe I need to ask Santa for that larger tank.

 

[brian1973]

lol..where did you buy your plants from? If it was petsmart or petco I can almost guarantee thats where the snails came from..I dont know what kind they might be but the description is identical to the ones that hitchhiked into my tanks..lol..they will actually help with the bioload eating leftover food and algea as well, well I think algea. They dont seem to get very large and they seem to come and go..one day you will think they are overrunning the tank then a couple later you may not see any..I dont know what happens to them but it seems to work for me.

 

[Chris_A]

If you don't want the snails, just squish them against the glass when you see them. I know... Some people don't like to do that.

One nice thing about the snails is they can be kinda like a litmus test for if you are over feeding. If there's a lot of extra food they will multiply like mad.

Chris

 

[MissFishy]

There are two types of snails that commonly hitch hike from the pet store, trumpet snails and pond snails. Trumpet snails are long with a pointed shell, pond snails are rounded and look like typical snails. Another common one are the ramshorn snails, but those are a little more rare to be found as hitch hikers. They are more "spiral" shaped. None of these should be a problem in your tank unless they bother you. To get rid of them or lessen their numbers, make sure to feed only as much as your fish eat while it is floating on the surface. Don't feed so that food reaches the gravel as that is where the snails will find it and eat it.

It does look like you'll be needing a bigger tank, that type of catfish does like to be in groups and it would probably be more enjoyable to watch and less scared if you got a couple more.