HElp bought a catfish that swims in circl

[arwld]

hi

Heres the story. Hope you can help.
My girlfriend buys this big fish to stick in with our guppies.
Long story short I have a 40 Gallon tank and keep it nice and clean.
We have several guppies many of which are fry.
They have slowly dwindled in numbers.
Since we got this weird catfish (crazyfish) All of our fry are gone and a couple of the more mature fry that never got bothered by the older guppies are gone.
My girlfriend swares that it is a non aggressive fish, I would like to know if anyone has had expierence with this sort of situation. The only other thing I could think of is we have those little swimming frogs, but I dont think they could take on a good sized young guppie.
Any info would be great.

 

[wrs]

its definetly the catfish.

tell her just because it isnt aggressive doesnt mean that it will not eat the guppies. especially because they are smaller. even a goldfish would eat the fry.

if you want the guppies get rid of the big catfish NOW!

 

[arwld]

Ok
Boy that was a costly lesson.
I said that when she put it in there but she
has a hard time with common since.
I think it is a Butterfly Catfish. It is now resting in a 5 gallon by itself.
gREEDY BUGGER.

tHANKS A MILLION WRS

 

[wrs]

no problem, ands you can call me Will instead, lol. thats my real name.

 

[CFC]

The only catfish with the common name of butterfly catfish is a pleco which i doubt very much would be taking guppies. Missidentifying catfish is a very risky business as many species can grow larger than the average sized tank and almost all larger catfish are predators, i suggest looking through the cat e log on planet catfish to discover what you really have http/www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.htm

 

[arwld]

Nice graphic CFC
The pet store is calling the fish a bumble bee catfish.
Looks alot like a hendrickson or Akysis

I was wondering , my plecosomous or however you spell it is getting quite large will he cause problems at some point with guppies or fry?

 

[hellohefalump]

aww *condolensces* my pictus ate my mollie fry

I thought plecos only ate algae? I might be wrong though... but I think that's right. you're talking about a common pleco right? hypostomus?

 

[LadyMinion]

I thought plecos only ate algae? I might be wrong though... but I think that's right. you're talking about a common pleco right? hypostomus?

Many types of pleco are omnivorous, i.e. they need meaty foods in their diet as well as vegetable matter.

The hypostomus plecostomus (common pleco) is omnivorous so will require this mixed diet.

It is a common misconception that plecos only eat algae. In most cases they need much more variety for a healthy life.

 

[Inchworm]

The only catfish with the common name of butterfly catfish is a pleco which i doubt very much would be taking guppies.

Just for the record, so no one gets confused, the C. tukano is sometimes referred to as the "bumblebee cory." Here's a link:

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/calli...rydora/15_f.php

Of course, they are well mannered and friendly like the other corys.

 

[arwld]

Just for the record, so no one gets confused, the C. tukano is sometimes referred to as the "bumblebee cory."

My catfish is not a Cory. It has a mouth like the common variety lake Channel cat.
The rest of it's features resemble a Hendrickson.
I am convinced it is an akysis hendricksoni.
And according to Planet catfish, they like live food as well as the dead dried etc.
Which leaves me wondering why the petstore would say put it in with some guppies. That's stupid.

I am researching my pleco next it is the armored variety black and orangish brown.
They say that the common pleco is an omnivore and is territorial, however it will ignore smaller fish. My fish is dark orangish brown and black not grayish like they show in the picture.
Thanks for your comments guys.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi arwld

I didn't think you had a cory, but since keepers of all kinds of catfish share this forum, I just wanted to note that there was another fish that had a similar name.

 

[arwld]

UPDATE

I now keep my catfish with 2 dwarf puffers and everything is heaven.