I've looked around for a little bit, but couldn't quite find what I was looking for. We have a 10 gallon freshwater tank with 5 fish in it. We have a tetra, a tiger barb (i believe), an algae eater, a catfish, and another small, neon pink fish. The catfish rarely comes out from under the one piece of structure, and will only eat if a piece of food passes directly infront of it, which I believe is pretty normal for catfish. The problem is that 90% of the food gets eaten before it reaches the bottom, and the bit that does rarely passes by where the catfish hangs out.

My concern is that the catfish might not be getting enough food. The catfish is acting normal (hanging in a hole, out of the current, waiting for food to come to him), but if he really isn't getting enough food, will he come out of his spot to feed? This morning when I first came in, I noticed the catfish was out an about. I've read about using frozen, unskinned peas as food, so I've been considering putting in a few of them at night, so he has some food on the bottom to eat if/when he comes out. Any opinions on this?

you need to ascertain what sort of catfish he is to make sure he's getting the right nutirition, some are carnivores, some herbivores, some ominovers etc etc

if you don't know the species then post a pic of it and we can ID it.

you're safest all round bet is to get some catfish pellets from you're lfs, they're available just about anywhere, sinking pellets of food which will drop through the water rapidly and therefore get down to the bottom feeders.

if the catfish needs veggies then the blanched shelled peas cn work, also you can weigh down a piece of courgette or cucmber in there. if they need meat then bloodworms sink pretty quickly.

I think you can buy pellets of some sort? Ask your LFS.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The sinking wafers or pellets will work fine. To get flakes to the bottom faster, release them under the water instead of just sprinkling them on top. You can also make a tube (straw) that reaches to the bottom of the tank and put food in it so that it goes to the bottom without being available to the other fish. That is actually how they feed the bottom feeders (but with something like 4 to 6 inch diameter pieces of PVC) in the large public aquariums. I saw that on a behind the scenes tour of the whale shark tank at the Georgia Aquarium.

Great suggestion. I've never heard of that before.

When you feed your fish and they come to surface, put the food in either corner, while there feeding, throw a wafer or pellet in the opposite side (the catfish will find - most likely after lights out) i turn my lights off about 1 hour before bedtime, feed the catfish 30 mins after lights out as this is when they are most active.

This post has been edited by 5teady: Feb 20 2008, 04:16 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions. This is what our catfish looks like:
http://www4.pantown.com/data/2888/board5/109.jpg
I like the straw idea, as that would let me target the area that it stays in. I think I'll give that a shot for now. If this catfish is a vegitarian, I may try the peas also.

This post has been edited by daw422: Feb 20 2008, 04:53 PM

That is a polka dot pictus. The same I have, and I have the same problem. They are shy. Mine likes algae wafers and sinking tablets. I use a tube to drop it down into and I also have those claw things where I can drop it in front of his cave. Half the time my Tinfoil Barbs still manage to steal it from him. He is very healthy as they also eat uneaten food from the bottom after lights out.

It's good to hear that ours is acting normal. As I said, I have seen him swimming around early in the morning, but all the other fish pick the bottom clean, so I was worried about starving it.

I have had a similar problem getting wafers to my green pleco without them being grabbed by the congo tetras.
The trick of putting food in at one side and the wafers in at the other worked for a while but then the congos worked it out and could do a quick dash while the wafers were sinking. Now I have it sorted though because I have one of those long lazy tong things for planting (never use it for that) it can hold a few wafers in the grab and I then deposite them right outside the pleco's hanging out place, this works a treat and because they are so close to the pleco's den he can even scare off the bigger Siamese flying fox and get stuck in to them in peace.
good luck
DD

I missed this suggestion the first time I read it. I now remember I would drop in a wafer, blood worms, etc. when I was turning off all lights and I was going to bed.