Raphael Vs Senegal?

[Straydum]

To much surprise, one of my lfs just stocked quite a number of raphael catfishes. I dont see them quite often in my area and I'd always thought they cost a bomb. They werent actually as expensive as I thought they would be. I've always wanted one and today I got myself a pair, both around 3 or 4".

They have settled quite nicely in my 75g, but the thing that bothers me now is that my 6" senegal is checking them out. It gets close to them and attempts a bite or two. It misses most of the time but I'm afraid it'd continue. From here, either my raphael would become lunch/dinner, or my senegal would be badly injured by the raphael's spines, or the senegal would choke on the raphael which may get stuck in it's mouth and both dies. Help?

 

[nmonks]

The two should be absolutely fine. Provided the catfish wasn't so tiny it could be swallowed whole (i.e., guppy sized) the bichir will ignore it. Senegal bichirs aren't really piscivores, and their main diet in the wild is stuff like insect larvae and crustaceans. Bichirs have legendarily poor eyesight, and their approach to hunting is "suck it and see". Once he's established that these things are inedible, he'll leave them alone.

I've kept P. palmas (a similar species of bichir) with juvenile Panaque a mere 5 cm or so long, and there were no problems. The bichir sadly died a few years ago under rather mysterious circumstances, but I still have the catfish.

These catfish are quite sociable. So if they're relatively inexpensive, get one or two more. Social catfish are far happier when kept in groups, and you're (slightly) more likely to see them swim about. At the very least, they'll entertain you in the evening as they establish their pecking order and squabble over the bloodworms you're putting out for them.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Lupin]

I agree with Neale. The Raphael catfish has serrated spines to protect itself but I doubt any possible predation. I keep a Raphael catfish with my Polypterus senegalus myself.