Help With New Giraffe Catfish Please...

[sjbquattro]

Hi all,

Firstly, I am new here, so must apologise if I am doing this post wrong! I'll have a read through the help sections later on!

Just bought a small (ish!) Giraffe Catfish last Saturday. He's about 6" I guess. Seemed very happy in the shop, and very lively and happy for the first couple of days in his new home. However, he's gone into hiding for the last 4 days. Stays hidden all day and only comes out at night. Now, am I being stupid here... is that what I can expect of him? Hands up, I am no expect by a long shot and would appreciate any advice. The sales guy in the shop told me to feed him frozen bloodworm & algae wafers which he doesn't seem to touch, and prawns, which he does seem to drag into his cave and must be eating them!
Am I feeding him the right food? Do you think he will come out of hiding and cheer up? Is there anything I am doing wrong?
Tank is pretty large (300 litres) and has a real mix of fish. Two silver sharks, one red tale shark, two Opaline guoarmi, one golden guoarmi, one plec and one silver dollar. They all seem happy and in fact the plec follows the giraffe around and sleeps with him.....
So, any advice much appreciated...food, general info, water quality etc (I have two internal and one decent external filter - overkill I know, but the internal's will go once the external has bedded in as it's only a week old)
Thanks all, Stuart

 

[OohFeeshy]

If they're anything like other similar species, then being nocturnal is fairly normal. However, two things. He needs much more meaty food like prawns, lancefish and suchlike as opposed to bloodworm and algae wafers, and will grow to somewhere between 2 and 3 foot fairly quickly. The only good thing is he isn't likely to eat the other fish once he gets larger.