Upside Down Catfish Help

[123justin]

I've had this 1 upside down catfish that lives in my castle for about a month now.

My water parametres are fine and I do regular water changes weekly.

My problem or concern, is that I have no clue what this USD catfish eats. I feed the other community fish flakes and sinking wafers.

The only time the USD catfish comes out is when its nighttime. Even so, all I see the USD catfish doing is swimming around and around the bottom of my tank against the glass.

To this day, I've never seen him eat a single thing.

But this night, I was watching all the community fish when the USD catfish came out and swam around CRAZILY. Then the USD catfish sunk to the bottom to the gravel (still upside down) and just lay there. Then he got back up and went inside his castle.

What is causing this mysterious behaviour?

 

[Teelie]

It could be slowly starving. Try frozen bloodworms if you can get them. I don't know a fish that won't eat them.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You should feed it frozen and live foods like daphinia, bloodworms, tubifex and krill and it also needs it diet suplimented with algae wafers, upside down catfish also prefer to be keep in small groups like corys- realy though you shouldn't buy a fish if you do not even know what it eats.
Heres some links with more info on upside down catfish;

http/freshaquarium.about.com/cs/catfish1...sidedowncat.htm

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/mocho...odont/334_f.php

 

[Dwarfs]

The fact that they will eat algae wafers doesn't mean they need them I have several synodontis and they are all growing fast on shrimp pellets and frozen treats

Try feeding your upside down cat frozen foods at night, after it is eating regularly at night, you can start feeding during the day, and the catfish should come out to eat, once it gets fat you can try switching it to flakes/pellets/freeze dried foods

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

This is what they said on feeding upside down catfish in the first link but you have experience with these fish while i don't, but if they eat algae theres no harm in feeding it to them i suppose;

"Diet: In nature the upside down catfish feeds primarily on insects at the surface of the water. They will also graze on algae to supplement their diet. In the aquarium environment they adapt readily to all types of foods, from dry to live or frozen. For optimum health, provide a varied diet that includes insect larvae when possible."

 

[Dwarfs]

I don't have them, but I did research them, and I hadn't read about them eating algae anywhere, the link may be right, but I would think that algae would only be the cats last resort if there was a shortage of insects

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Good thing there's someone on here who's got USDC's then. I've got four of these, 2 for over a year and the others for about 3 months. Don't you just love them?!

The trouble with USDC's is that they don't come out doing the daytime, and as such, will find it very difficult to find food because the other occupants would have scoffed the lot: live, frozen, or freeze-dried.

It's true that you do need to feed them just before you pop off to bed yourself. I feed mine sliced-up fishing maggots. A simple cut down the middle length-ways is enough (keeps in more of the good stuff!).

Make sure there is enough to go around and perhaps a little more. That's the way I do it, and the proof is they're still with me.

HTH

 

[trimacdevilconvict]

my experience is with related synos when they were small i never seen them but as they grew they came out more and more my featherfin is always out now he is full grown he eats prawn but when he was young i could have sworn he didnt eat as i never seen him do so a bit like my raphael cats now