I've read all over the net that ghost catfish are very fragile, stressy, and delicate, sometimes not even making it back home from the petstore. I, however, feel this is quite over exaggerated.
Now, let's start at the beginning. Way back when I was starting off the hobby, and had a mere 20 gallon hexigon that I had borrowed, taking advice from my aunt and not really cycling the tank (I was given advice to run the tank for a week and the water will be okay. no cycling, no fish, just letting it run a brand new filter with brand new everything) I started it off with only fish that I thought were appealing. No research, just "oh, that one's pretty, let's get it"
This of course ended in disaster, me getting the stock of:
3 ghost catfish
2 blue gouramis
6 guppies
4 bleeding heart tetras
this, not surprisingly looking back at it, ended in disaster. the gouramis killed each other, the guppies all didn't make it, and the bleeding hearts eventually bit the dust as well.
The 3 ghost catfish, however, are still around to this day, alive and well. They've moved tanks quite a few times as time has passed with no signs of stress, they've never been bothered too much by other fish, they're not the shyest I've ever seen, and they have a healthy appetite. I've had them with quite a few other kinds of fish, from rambunctious and aggressive to timid and slow moving like themselves, and there hasn't been an issue at all.
I can honestly say that they're quite the little troopers. And I'm planning on getting a few more to accompany them. And with that, I started doing further research on their kind, and all the research is saying that they often die on the way home, not to keep them with fast moving fish, to keep them in a well planted tank so they can hide, and I've started to accommodate to this, but I feel like it's over exaggerated looking at what mine have been through over the past year
Just thought I'd throw this out, what do you think? How have you guys done with ghost catfish?
Now, let's start at the beginning. Way back when I was starting off the hobby, and had a mere 20 gallon hexigon that I had borrowed, taking advice from my aunt and not really cycling the tank (I was given advice to run the tank for a week and the water will be okay. no cycling, no fish, just letting it run a brand new filter with brand new everything) I started it off with only fish that I thought were appealing. No research, just "oh, that one's pretty, let's get it"
This of course ended in disaster, me getting the stock of:
3 ghost catfish
2 blue gouramis
6 guppies
4 bleeding heart tetras
this, not surprisingly looking back at it, ended in disaster. the gouramis killed each other, the guppies all didn't make it, and the bleeding hearts eventually bit the dust as well.
The 3 ghost catfish, however, are still around to this day, alive and well. They've moved tanks quite a few times as time has passed with no signs of stress, they've never been bothered too much by other fish, they're not the shyest I've ever seen, and they have a healthy appetite. I've had them with quite a few other kinds of fish, from rambunctious and aggressive to timid and slow moving like themselves, and there hasn't been an issue at all.
I can honestly say that they're quite the little troopers. And I'm planning on getting a few more to accompany them. And with that, I started doing further research on their kind, and all the research is saying that they often die on the way home, not to keep them with fast moving fish, to keep them in a well planted tank so they can hide, and I've started to accommodate to this, but I feel like it's over exaggerated looking at what mine have been through over the past year
Just thought I'd throw this out, what do you think? How have you guys done with ghost catfish?
