Upsidedown Catfish

[LongS]

Had my Catfish in my community tank for over 6 months now.

Got a Queen Loach, guppies and two mountain minnows.

One of the Mountain minnows is missing an eye now and im not sure who is responsible.

Up until now there hasn't been any agression in my tank whatsoever.

Can anyone advise me on who the likely attacker is?

And will the missing eye have a huge affect on the quality of his life?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Queen Loach, aka Leptobotia elongata? Very likely candidate for me, these temperate, predatory fish can reach 50cm. Romsey World Of Water is expecting some of these in the next week or two, £150 a pop!

 

[LongS]

Sorry iv used the wrong common name for that, its a Botia Histronica, i am not sure of the common name for that to be honest.

Hes only about 2.5 - 3 inch long. had him for over two years

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Any chance the Upside Down is not the true species and is in fact the more aggressive Synodontis nigrita?

Anything happened in the last fortnight since your original post?

 

[Binge]

I am no expert but my upside down Picks a rock in whatever tank you put him in and simply clings to it. He will only leave it if you move the rock. So I doubt he is the aggressor.

 

[bristlenoseitplecoman]

I dought it too. They are naturally peaceful fish and should be kept in schools. I would think it might be a feud between the minnows or guppies and that one was unfortunate.

 

[LongS]

I'm bringing this up again because there has been another incident in the tank. A small mountain minnow has disappeared overnight.

A question to Goat, does the Synodontis nigrita swim upside down too? From the pictures i have searched on google images it looks as though you maybe right. I was sold the fish as an upside down cat and researched it before i bought it therefore came to the conclusion it was ok for my setup. However now it is a hell of alot bigger than when i got it (roughly 5 inches).

Also one of the platties has been attacked during the night and looks to have been munched on.

Any ideas in what i can do next?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Having just replied to your other post, I've just seen this update...

True Upside Downs (S. nigriventris) rarely get any bigger than 8cm in the hobby, including the tail, so your specimen approaching 15cm could well be a S. nigrita. These are much more aggressive members of this African genus with other tankmates in general and especially with any other Synodontis in their territory.

Take a few photos and upload the best quality ones to a site like Imageshack or Photobucket, then embed the link to a thread post.

Have you got a QT or a bucket that you can isolate this catfish in until you get a positive ID?

 

[LongS]

I have a small 17 litre tank somewhere. Im not sure that would be suitable though? I will try to get a photo and get it on to the site somehow.

 

[LongS]

Testing

not sure how to attach photos, iv took some, but not too sure how to post em.

 

[LongS]

http/s1085.photobucket.com/albums/j435/longshlong1/

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Looks more like a S. euptera (Featherfin) to me than nigrita, but you could post in the ID section of PlanetCatfish to get conformation from the gurus.


Rather than isolating this big catfish, perhaps isolating the the WCMM in your small tank might be the way forwrds for now, if the larger tankmates all appear to have no current issues. The minnows will not need a heater, simply add some of their current tank water and let it cool down naturally to room temp, adding a filter containing some mature media.

 

[LongS]

Could be an idea. I have an uncle who has a community set up. i might see if he wants to add the minnows to his tank. Its only the new minnows who are at risk, the fully grown ones are too big to eat by the looks of things. I will post the link on a catfish forum and try and get an I.D on this.

I take it the S. euptera (Featherfin) is slightly less aggressive than the nigrita then? i was worrying i had some uncontrollable monster in there haha.

 

[LongS]

Right, something has to be done with my tank, iv just this minute looked and my male guppies tale has been completely shredded. its pretty bad. I think i'll have to get rid of the little fish completely. I'm not sure if the female guppies will be ok as they are quite a bit bigger. Also the platies are quite a bit bigger bodied too. Its strange how there is aggression all of a sudden it seems as if its just happened over the few days.

 

[james41683]

I would blame the euptera. I had to remove mine from my peacock tank because he was attacking everyone when the lights were out, i happened to catch him in the act after noticing a lot of fish with bite marks and fins missing.