Upside-down cat

[619 Fish GOD]

hi
my upside down cat is permantly attached to a place of alumain (the plant)
he never comes out and i am worried coz i have never seen him feed (hes been in my tank for a week)will he eat the scarps at night or should i get him some algae
tablets. )

 

[Doggfather]

Your catfish probably dosn't come out while your looking because it's noctural fish which retires to the dark spots of the tank during the day. I'm sure once the lights go he's out and about, eating whatevers left over Try dropping in some food after the lights have been out for some time if that dosn't work, i'm sure you'll be able to tempt him (or her) out with some live blooodworms

 

[Never2Bknown]

Keeping just one upside-down catfish may also keep it from coming out as they are schooling fish and need to be kept in groups of at least three. If they are not, they will either die of stress or spend the rest of its life in hiding.

 

[Colin_BC]

I have to totally agree with the previous two posts. I have had an upside down cat for 8 months. It always hides, although it's spot for the past 2 months has been right behind the filter where I can at least see it. For the previous 4 months before that, I seriously thought it had died and been devoured by my big killie and angels as I had ripped the tank apart (plants and all) on several occasions looking for it and never saw a trace. Low and behold, 2 months after I had given up on it, the sneaky little bugger showed himself. I have only ever seen it swim freely around the tank twice (other than it's first day), and both those times were at night after lights-out. My tank is heavily planted, so I'm guessing that's where it gets it's food at night. It will eat frozen foods if I drop them right on him/her, but only what comes close enough to it's mouth. But oddly enough, it's a chubby little fish still. I only learned that it preferred groups of 3 or more a month or so ago. I will eventually add a couple friends for mine to try to coax it out.

Colin