sorry for the loss man. daymn! gulpers sure knows the meaning of the word EAT or more like devour hehe! do they eat each other too?
Another "Gulper Eats..." Thread
- Thread starter KenyanSandBoa
- Start date
KenyanSandBoa;1882137; said:I was both irate and amazed at the same time. The scary part is that when I was feeding the other gulper, that fat-arse took a piece of jumbo shrimp too!!!
That statment right there is probably the craziest thing I've read in a long time.
Really shows just how greedy and what a strong feeding response those finned stomachs have.Sorry for the loss.
Gulper's interestingly enough won't eat each other. They snap at each other during feeding's but seem to instinctively not attempt to eat each other. I've had 4 gulpers together an they never even tried to consume each other. As for tankmates it's possible, gulpers can only open their mouths so far so wide or high bodied fish would be safe. Trachycorystes are good tankmates they are wider than a gulper to the point where no matter how a gulper tried it just wouldn't fit. Those locking spines trachy's have help too. All woodcats have those spines making swallowing them hard unless the fish is considerably larger. I've seen my gulper try to eat my jaguar cat to no avail after 2 attempts he learned it wasn't feasible an left him alone. He'd go to snap at the jaguar till a barbel made contact then through familiarity(the taste of the jaguar) he'd stop mid attack and look elsewhere. Interestingly enough the gulpers never attempted to eat my trachy's even when colliding head on there was no snapping at the trachy. Which by the way is a normal thing for a gulper to do. You get anywhere near it's mouth and it will attempt to consume you. Heck mine tried eating my fist during tank maintenance till it realized it wasn't able to get my hand in it's mouth. High bodied fish like Uaru, Discus, Datnoids and pacu's should also be good tankmates. If a Gulper can't get the fish past it's mouth it can't eat it. The high body makes it impossible to get in even those huge jaws. Even sideways the bodies of these fish are too high. The gulper is unable to bend the fish to get it in it's mouth unlike with longer fish. Though the fish needs to be of an appropiate size, no 4" Uaru and 6" gulper. Also even fish that are high bodied are susceptible. The fish has to be nearly round otherwise the gulper will grab the fish to it's gills and suffocate the hapless fish, releasing it only after the gulper figures out he can't eat it. Which will be long after the fish has expired. I personally love gulper's and will keep trying to get a community tank going. I think I'll start a thread about it letting people know of my success so they will know what are suitable tankmates for a gulper. Gulpers are peaceful just predatory so I believe success is abtainable. Plus the research shouldn't take long since my gulper grew about 3" in 6 months I belive adult sizes for the gulper will be attained quick enough. Anyway I believe the fish I suggested would be okay, but I have no longterm success to back it up. These are just my opinions so don't try it unless your willing to lose some fish in experimenting. Sorry kenyansandboa didn't mean to hijack your thread, and I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. I think your right though with Rich giving such good prices on gulpers I think many people will be getting this fish and finding out the hard way about compatiblity issues. These guys need a sticky.
I have a gulper and he is with a panaque nigrolineatus and a L91 Leporancanthicus triactis. He seems fine with these and has been with them for a few months now. I think this is due to the plecs having very hard bodies. He has eaten other fish including a cichlid that was the same size as him which I did not expect due to the cichlid having a high body as mentioned by koltsix. This caused the gulper problems in that he was so full it pressed on his swim bladder and he kept floating the wrong way up. It is only my experience but maybe plecs are a good choice of tank mate for gulpers.
Yeah I've been reconsidering the whole Gulper thing.... to many tanks going already and to add another one just isn't a great idea...I'll get them when I have a tank open up though 
Well being a HUGE RTC/TSN fan i would be pissed!!!As i'm sure you are,sorry for your loss.Hey by the way how big do Gulper Cats get???
Exactly...they are bottomless pits. Normally when I feed my fish I fill a large specimen container about 3/4 of the way full...and that will feed my big boys for the night. Now that I have the gulpers I'm up to AT LEAST a full specimen container...and up to about 1.5 specimen containers when I feed my saltwater tank...Bawb2u;1882363; said:That statment right there is probably the craziest thing I've read in a long time.
Sorry for the loss.
No worries...I'm glad you included that write up. I really wanted your opinion in this thread because I know you've had good luck with your species of catfish with these floating stomachskoltsix;1882408; said:
.I'm glad I could help.Miguel;1882671; said:
Definitely a good idea. I got myself into this situation when I picked up my RTCxTSN and had some aggression problems with my small datnoids. That was the only tank I had "open"...and my stupid decision cost him his life.basslover34;1882857; said:Yeah I've been reconsidering the whole Gulper thing.... to many tanks going already and to add another one just isn't a great idea...I'll get them when I have a tank open up though
Thanks...I'm in the same boat with you...KEEP THEM ALONE!! They are definitely my favorite cats, but yeah, I think a Tig is the ultimate catfish.BigJ;1883350; said:
I was indeed pissed...I really liked that RTCxTSN.Dovii dude;1883390; said:
Gulpers can get up to the 12" mark, but the 10-11" range is the most common.
