sick shark catfish

Hi Everyone,

i have a shark catfish, about 2 inches long, see pic.

he hasn't been eating for a week now and keeps sitting on the gravel. i've never seen this before, he used to be very active all the time.

i am wondering what their preferred food is, i have been feeding frozen blood worm, frozen tubiflex worm, frozen daphnia, algae discs (for pleco's), and tetraprima dried food. obviously not together but dried food 3x per week, one frozen on other days.

he isn't touching any of the above and i'm worried. is there anything they prefer so i can 100% tell if it's him with the problem or me feeding him the wrong food.

also at what size/age do they start to need brackish water, if this is the problem he's doomed as i can't add salt to my tank (got 2 pleco's)

any help appreciated

hiya,

i have two of these and they are my favorate fish, it may be that it is lonely, i used to have two when i fist got my tank but one died when the tank cycled, the remaining columbian was lively and happy for two month before he started to sulk...lie on the bottom, whent off his food and didnt care when i was cleaning the tank

so i baught him a mate, he was so happy that i had baught him a mate that when i put the bag in the tank to get the new fish acustomed to the water, he bounced on top of it and flew out of the tank!!!!!

he and his mate are ok now and are happily swimming together

Columbian Sharks are schooling fish and need company

mine seem to like bloodworm and prawns, but when they get bigger they will need to be fed neons which i havent tried yet

also i have put salt in my tank, my tank also includes two pleco's which are doing great, so long as you dont add too much salt it should be fine. some fish even prefer there being a little salt in the tank and salt can be a good cleaning agent for fish with wounds, ask your local pet shop about adding salt with your types of fish

I've recently acquired these litle critters. Thay are also known as black fin sharks. Either way their catfish that as they mature, they move from freshwater to salt. Every morning I feed mine sinking catfish pellets, and every night I feed brine shrimp. They love the shrimp more then anything. CFC is the person to talk to about them. He'll know the answer to pretty much every question you have. He don't like mollies though. I had to put mine in brackish water almost right away cuz they were acting really strange. As I increase the sg to 1.005 they calmed down. They seem to like brackish but I've heard of people keeping them in freshwater their whole life. Max size is around 10". Mine were 3" when they went to brackish. They are now 4". CFC's is this size as well, and he got brackish. Is this the only fish in the tank? What size tank? I'm keeping mine in a 55g probably for about a year then moving to a 125g.