Which catfish would be best for me in my situation??

[Sampson]

Hi all! I am new to these forums and hoping I can get some help here.

I currently have a 70 gallon with the following fish:

1 Pink Tail
1 GT
2 Green Sunfish
1 Pleco

The pink tail, GT and sunnies are eating grass shrimp and small small feeder platys currently. Trouble is, that some of the feeders are still in the tank and are not being eaten because of them being too big for my boys to want to tackle.

I would like to have some sort of bottom feeder (Catfish or otherwise) that will take care of the larger feeders regularly but not grow TOO LARGE to handle or become aggressive to my existing fish.


Any help on this one?? If you know, could you please give me the scientific name of the fish you are referring to so that I may check it out??

Thanks in Advance,

Samps

 

[Somonas]

I don't think you can do this. anything that will eat feeders that big will get wayyy to big for a 70

I guess the simple solution which I bet others will suggest too is stop using feeders.

 

[Purple]

The smaller shovel-nose cats such as the 9 inch Lima, will not 'take' a fish over 2 inches, especially if there are other sources of food. Anything smaller than that will have to watch out - but cat fish are lazy by nature.

The 'Big Cats' like the Tiger shovel nose will take your hand down their throat - but they get to 4 ft.

I'm with Somonas on this one - re-think using feeders. Frozen prawns will keep them busy for a while, or try frozen bait fish cut into chunks.

 

[ScubaSteve]

PICTUS CAT

 

[dethjam316]

i also was going to suggest pictus cats...perfect solution here! get a small school of them...they do better that way. get to about 5 inches i think and will eat fish they can fit in their mouths.

http://www.scotcat.com/factsheets/pimelodus_pictus.htm

 

[wayne]

You can try a single larger pim, but you have to beware getting something a bit too big. I'm not sure if a 70 is 4 or 5 feet long, but it will be a struggle to keep anything active and bigger than 9 inches in there if it's 4 foot. There's a 3 part series on big catfish in Practical Fishkeeping at the moment - maybe there's some of the content on the website?