Upside Down Catfish

[Teresa]

I am worried about my upside down catfish. I have not seen him for 5 days. He lives in a heavily planted tank and has plenty of possible hiding places. He used to come out for his breakfast with the cory catfish (x4) but he has not done since last week. Is there any magic food that he will be unable to resist?

 

[cichlidmaster]

First thing you want to do is make sure he is alright.

The best way to do this without disturbing the whole tank is after lights out take a flashlight and look into the tank. (wait about a half hour after lights out)

You should see him swimming about.

If not, then it may be time to start moving things to find him.

CM

 

[frazzle1211]

I wouldn't panic just yet, he's prob just hiding
i have 2 of them and I'm lucky if i see them once a week(and my tank ain't heavily planted)

If he was dead I'm sure you would have had some sort of sign by now, usually in my tank I know a fish has died because all the other fish are fighting amongst themselves to eat the dead one, or the fish that has died has been sucked into my external filter pipe.

As CM says, check after lights out, but don't get in to a blind panic and assume the worst just because he aint been around for a few days.

 

[Kryten]

I occasionally lose a fish, and even if shifting the fish by moving everything doesn't work, I find that knocking on the table that the tank is on, this will encourage even the scariest of fish to show him/herself

I know it seems a bit harsh, but is will put your mind at rest and will make sure that the fish is in good health, which is the most important thing after all

 

[Pufferpack]

We have 2 Upsidedown cats that hardly ever come out. One used to hide inside a small crevase in the Barnacles that used to be the main decoration in the tank. the only way we could see him was by shining a flashlifht through a small crack in the front of the barnacle and looking for a fin outline, the barnacle has since been removed and replaced with Bogwood which gives him a dark place to hide, but we can still see him.
Lately we have discovered that if we put some frozen brine shrimp in just before lights out they will both come out to eat after the lights go off. We are also trying sinking shrimp pellets, the Banjo cat will unbury himself for these, even in the light, so we have hopes that the upsidedowns will respond as well.

Don.

 

[Teresa]

Thank you all for the advice.

He finally appeared for breakfast with the corys on Saturday

 

[Kryten]

Most important meal of the day