Anyone Else Have A Spotted Climbin Perch?

[gothicangel69]

This is Mr. Perch, he's two years old and lives in a 30 gallon with 2 kribs and 2 bolivians. He eats white cloud minnows, tetras, and goldfish. Anyoone else have one??

 

[nmonks]

Nice. I kept a pair of these for about ten years before passing them on to another fishkeeper. They live for up to 20 years, apparently.

I'm not a fan of feeding live fish to predatory fish, and goldfish especially should NEVER, EVER be used because they are incredibly unhealthy food items (thiaminase, high levels of fat) irrespective of whether or not they have parasites as well (which cheap "feeder fish" do). Bob Fenner (one of the most respected marien aquarists of his generation) describes goldfish as the Number-1 reason marine lionfish die in captivity, at least in the US: that's how dangerous goldfish are!

So if you want Mr Perch to last a full 10-20 years, lay off the goldfish at the very least.

But in this case, they aren't even appropriate. Spotted climbing perch are primarily insect eaters. Their main food is mosquito larvae. So frozen bloodworms make a safe and readily taken staple food item. While they certainly will eat small fish in the wild, it's a relatively minor constituent of their diet. Think of them as an African analogue of the South American angelfish: both fish are very similar in terms of habits and ecological niche. Both species are shy, form territorial pairs, hide under plants, like slow-moving water, hate aggressive tankmates, and eat insects but the occasional fish. Indeed, spotted climbing perch and angelfish can work quite well together.

Cheers, Neale

This is Mr. Perch, he's two years old and lives in a 30 gallon with 2 kribs and 2 bolivians. He eats white cloud minnows, tetras, and goldfish. Anyoone else have one??

 

[gothicangel69]

I usually don't get goldfish for those reasons, occasionally he has them, but I don't think I'll be buying them anymore. He's just gotten really sick with ick from eating a sick goldfish. I'm having a hard time getting rid of it. I usually feed him minnows and neon tetras which are usually pet quality so are pretty healthy. His favorite are the neon tetras.
His tank is very well planted since he is very shy. He doesn't even like people coming near the tank.
As for food, the only thing he will eat is fish. I've tried pellets, flakes, frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, and blood worms, but he just completely refuses them. He only eats in the middle of the night, and he only eats fish.

 

[nmonks]

Most fish will get used to a single sort of food if you let them. Kids will only eat candy if they can. But sometimes you have to put your foot down and make them eat their vegetables. So it is with fish.

Yes, your climbing perch will eat bloodworms*. Maybe not the first time you offer them. Or the next day. Or the day after that. But he will. Predatory fish can go many days without food, even weeks, so doing this isn't risking anything. Let him starve a week if you want. That'll focus his mind on whatever you decide to give him. And once he's taking bloodworms, you can expand things a little to include krill, chopped mussel, etc. But truly, insect larvae of one sort of another are the correct and most nutritious food you can give them.

Neon tetras are a terrible food. Ever heard of Neon Tetra Disease? It's very common among cheap (commercially bred) neons. Caused by a parasite called Pleistophora. Despite its name, it will infect fish other than neons, including species as diverse as goldfish and angelfish. So yes, it's a potential risk to your Ctenopoma. How, you ask, do fish catch Neon Tetra Disease? By eating an infected fish! So feeding neons deliberately to a predatory fish is akin to playing Russian Roulette, where the "bullet" is an incurable disease that kills the fish slowly.

If you MUST use live fish as food because you enjoy using them, then the only 100% safe food are livebearers. Rear your own (don't use the ones you bought). Use the baby fish you breed at home. Gut-load the livebearers using algae flake.

No other source of feeder fish is safe. Period. End of story. Sooner or later, any fish bought from the pet store will cause disease, especially with a predator that lives as long as Ctenopoma acutirostre. You can't safely keep a predator while using cheap feeder fish. Just won't work out.

"Pet quality" means absolutely nothing at all. Goldfish, neons, rams, and dwarf gouramis are all widely sold as pets while being riddled with disease. One vet study put the incidence of Dwarf Gourami Disease (a viral disease) at 22% of all dwarf gouramis sampled! The odds are simply not in your favour.

Other good live foods for Ctenopoma are earthworms, mealworms, small crickets and river shrimp, at least some of which should be easy to obtain. All are safe, nutritious, and inexpensive.

Ctenopoma acutirostre is crepuscular, as you have observed. They're also rather shy. Floating plants are critical. Mine enjoyed bloodworms when offered in the morning and shortly before bedtime. Some suitably sized dither fish will also help enormously. Swordtails, Congo tetras or rainbowfish would all be about right, assuming your tank is big enough.

Cheers, Neale

*Live or "wet" frozen; not the freeze-dried stuff

I usually don't get goldfish for those reasons, occasionally he has them, but I don't think I'll be buying them anymore. He's just gotten really sick with ick from eating a sick goldfish. I'm having a hard time getting rid of it. I usually feed him minnows and neon tetras which are usually pet quality so are pretty healthy. His favorite are the neon tetras.
His tank is very well planted since he is very shy. He doesn't even like people coming near the tank.
As for food, the only thing he will eat is fish. I've tried pellets, flakes, frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, and blood worms, but he just completely refuses them. He only eats in the middle of the night, and he only eats fish.

 

[gothicangel69]

Frozen bloodworms are easy enough to get. I used to have to feed them to my chocolate gouramis all the time. Earthworms, and insects are easy to get as well. I feed them to my Oscar all the time. My only problem is the fact that my perch doesn't like anyone going near the tank, and if he sees you near his tank, he swims and hides for a good hour or two before coming out again. If I put the food in, it would be gone by the time he got to it. How can I make it so that the other fish don't eat the food before he gets it, also will he even recognize it as food? He completely refuses flake and pellet food. He'll go months without eating if I try to give it to him (I tried when I first got him as a baby)
Also, what kind of insect larvae should I try to get? I want to feed him the best possible diet so that he can live for a long time (If he doesn't die from this spell of ick he has) I need some advice as to how to go about this.
The tank doesn't have any floating plants, but it is very densely planted with lots of caves and driftwood for him to hide in. IF I get floating plants, will it kill the plants on the bottom by limiting the amount of light they get??

 

[nmonks]

Climbing perch are very shy, especially so if kept singly. There's also a connection between the size of the tank and their behaviour: in 20 gallon and smaller tanks, Ct. acutirostre seems to feel "hemmed in" and becomes very nervous. In a 40 gallon tank, it's much more outgoing.

No point giving them flake or pellets. In ten years, mine never showed any interest.

I fed the bloodworms by placing a frozen block in the tank, and as it defrosted, the perch would snap them up. Do something similar, day after day, at the same time each day, and the fish will get used to it. With all these predatory fish, the key is patience.

If you're keeping it with fish that steal it's food... then there really isn't an easy workaround. That's a classic problem. But I've kept Ctenopoma with dwarf cichlids and they were fine together. So it should work out.

Frozen bloodworms are an ideal staple. Live mosquito larvae are also popular.

Floating plants can shade plants at the bottom of the tank, but provided you crop the floating plants regularly, this shouldn't be a problem.

Cheers, Neale

 

[gothicangel69]

What types of floating plants are good???

 

[nmonks]

Anything will work. But you can't really go wrong with hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) and Indian fern (Ceratopteris spp.). All of these are not fussy about light, look nice, don't get burned by the lights, and are cheap and easy to buy.

If you're more adventurous, then Amazon frogbit, Salvinia, floating lily pad leaves, etc. will all work nicely too.

Silk and plastic plants are welcomed, and may be easier/more reliable in certain aquaria. Certainly, if you keep the tank dimly lit, which your perch would like, then the plastic/silk plants will be the way to go.,

Cheers, Neale

 

[gothicangel69]

I have the light dimmed using strips of heat tape around the light. He really doesn't like it when the tanks too bright.
That you for the suggestions, I'll have to give some of them a try.