Raphael Cat

[Josiah]

Can a Raphael be kept in a 29g for a little while and then be moved to a 55g with a small female convict, a small female firemouth, and a small blood parrot?

 

[Gankutsuou]

this belongs in another section....

details please.

any fish should be fine in X amount of volume in proportion to size for a few days.

 

[Josiah]

The Raphael I want is about 1-2 in long, the 29g has 6 cories, 6 black neons, and 2 Bolivian rams. His permanent home would have to be the 55g, the convict can be very aggressive at times if she's tested(like the FM invading her cave, or my hand moving stuff around). ph is 7.8 water is fairly hard, no ammonia, no nitrite, no nitrate, the 55g has been cycled for 3 weeks, the 29g has been cycled for about 6-7 weeks. Need to know anything else? Also the cories are the only bottom dwellers in the 29g.

EDIT:The substrate is a very fine small gravel.

 

[tropicman]

Your Rapheal Should be fine with your other fish i have had lots of expierience with these fish and i have kept them at my lfs where i work with blood parrots and they were fine

 

[DarkEntity]

Just remember that Raphaels like other catfish like meat and will take anything that fits in their mouth

 

[Josiah]

Okay I'll remember that, I'll move the platy fry then .


I bought him today, but when I bought him they got him out of the net WITH THERE BARE HANDS!!!! It made me furious because then he dropped the poor thing, I was so furious.

 

[tropicman]

did you have a word with the guy or what they should know how to handle the fish properly that really annoys me that does

 

[Josiah]

No because he runs off as soon as he gets them in the bag, and I don't get a chance to talk to him, stupid LFS people.

 

[DarkEntity]

I wouldnt have taken him, id have asked for a different one.

 

[QuotheRaven]

I purchased a spotted Raphael cat today. It took 10 minutes of poking proding with various objects and slighty kind of tugging it's tail ( not really a tug than a touch) it would not move from it's drift wood... finally got it and seems ok.

They need plenty of hiding spots and should be given plenty of frozen food

 

[andywg]

I bought him today, but when I bought him they got him out of the net WITH THERE BARE HANDS!!!! It made me furious because then he dropped the poor thing, I was so furious.

Bare hands is by far the best way to transport doradids out of the tank. You just place your fingers on the belly and your thumb behind the head and the fish will lock out its pectoral fins solid (probably an anti predation response). The fish can then be moved easily. The same technique also works great for plecs (particularly large Panaque spp)

I assume you are aware of just how many spines there are on a doradid such as the raphaels? Moving them with a net is asking to spend along time de-tanlging the net from all the various spines. The chances of being able to just tip one out of a net after it has thrashed about a little while are pretty slim.

The dropping is less than ideal, though many a fish has been dropped with little permanent harm. I would be far more unimpressed that the fish decided to put the fish into the net in the first place.

 

[Josiah]

I've heard about the spines on them, how bad can the spines get you?(I forget where I read it, that's going to bother me for awhile), but he wasn't careful getting him out of the net, he just put him in his fist, luckily he has lived so far, he doesn't come out of his cave very often though.

 

[andywg]

He probably won't come out very often. I have 8 doradids in a 3 foot tank. If I am lucky I might see them once every 2-3 weeks or so. They are heavily nocturnal.

The spines can get you quite bad. I have had one of the pectoral spines get lodged in my hand and it took some effort to feed the spine back out to free the fish. Try and make sure you don't get your finger snapped between the pectoral fin and the side of the fish as that really will hurt.

 

[Josiah]

How can I make sure he's eating? most of the food gets to the bottom because the fish wont come to the top, but how can I make sure he eats?

 

[gettotank110]

get a small bag of allgy wafers and drop 2 in near his hiding place before you turn off the lights trust me as soon as the lights go off he will come out in search for food and he will eat the whole wafer they have large mouths so keep an eye on the cories if their small enough he'll eat them my poor little fellas me t that fait