Banjo Catfish

[Starfishpower]

iv been having trouble getting my banjo catfish to eat since i got him about a week and a half ago. the guy at the LFS said i could feed him chopped earthworm like i feed my eel but he doesnt seem to be taking to that very well. i called them back and now iv been told to feed him live baby guppies. since i evidently am having trouble getting a straight answer from them im asking you guys what do i feed him, how often, and how much per meal? also does the diet vary any (more than one type of food), for nutritional purposes. im really worried about him cause its been like a week now and i dont want him to starve to death!

 

[SirMinion]

They absolutely won't eat live guppies. They wouldn't be able to catch them! It sounds like your LFS guy has banjos mixed up with the similaly shaped Chaca chaca. Very different fish.

Banjos are night-time scavenger feeders, sucking up whatever small fragments of food they find on the riverbed. They don't hunt and don't really move about much at all. Kept in a busy comunity tank they can starve because there's never anything left lying around long enough for them to find when the lights go out.
I've found that the best way to feed them is to turn the tank lights off, turn the room lights down low, wait ten minutes then use a turkey baster to squirt bloodworm or similar directly at their mouth.
If they're not too un-nerved by the baster they'll suck it in.

I've found the best food for them is the Tetra Delica jelly range:

I've got a video I made of mine eating that stuff somewhere. I'll try and dig it out.

 

[Starfishpower]

*sigh* thanks, i hate LFS ppl. i already got some gupps, like 16 of them! and i have no other fish that will eat them either. now iv got to figure out what to do with them. i dont want to flush them, that just seems cruel despite the fact that i bought them to be eaten anyway. ok ill try the blood worms. poor little guppies. maybe i can find a friend that can use them.

 

[Starfishpower]

ok so i tryd the blood worms and i think he ate them the only other critters in the tank with him is a spotted cory, all those baby guppies and some small snails so i think hes the only one that would possibly eat 'em. i just hope he actually ate the worms instead of just kicking up sand throughout the night and burying them. oh and 3 of the gupps are missing too. there is this thing siting over in a corner which looks like one of the smaller ones, but it looks to decomposed to have been dead naturally for one day so my only guess is that the banjo tryd to eat him and spit him back up. idk. any suggestions on that one? ill check my filter tonight when i have more time for it and see if the just got sucked in there.

 

[darkwolf29a]

They'll eat just about anything, honestly. I feed mine carnivore pellets. They devore them. Such cute little things. I have some zebra danios in the tank as well, and they aren't afraid of the banjos. Of course...I could put them in with the Chaca...that's all he'll eat. I tried pellets, krill, etc...won't touch anything that isn't moving. LOL

 

[Starfishpower]

i think iv had some successes with bloodworms that come in the gel kinda stuff. it keeps disappearing by the next morning and the only other thing in there with him is a cory cat, and some baby feeder guppies but i dont count them cause im pretty sure they dont eat blood worms. the cory gets cory cat pellets (theyr disk shaped actually but you get the point)

 

[Starfishpower]

ok so she's eating the bloodworms. how much and how often should i feed her ( i think its a her). i know iv gotten up to find her stomach just absolutely stuffed. is this too much? should i skip days when feeding her? ill try and get a pic up.

 

[darknirvana217]

I wouldn't over feed like that all the time. Catfish in the wild will sometimes go a few days without food, so you should be feeding her decent portions regularly. However, I wouldn't feed her only bloodworms. Try to give her an assorment of maybe black worms, brine shrimp, or mysis shrimp.

 

[Starfishpower]

ok, ill look that stuff up the next time i go to the lfs. thanks