I recently redid my 320 gallon tank 8'x32"x24"deep with an assortment of bruisers including a juguar cichlid, a red devil, an oscar, a brehordi, a chancho, a trimac, and a green texas. Are there any catfish that would be able to defend themselves from these fish? I also want something that could live in the tank for life. Thanks for any ideas or just a no. (also tank is acrylic, so trying to avoid plecos)
Any cat that may work?
- Thread starter axs377
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That's one aggressive bunch. Justarn was able to keep a 1.5' wyckii a while with his cichlids. Check this if interested http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/project-black-devil-cat-in-a-300g-community.549472/ Of course, with wyckii, one has to also be concerned for the cichlids...
This would eventually outgrow the tank, and likely kill off the cichlids eventually. A wyckii would be fine as far as living in there goes but how it will act will depend in the idividual, it may work it may not. But sun catfish, or the common 4-line cat could work. It also depends how aggressive the cichlids themselves are too because as with any other fish, the behavior can vary from fairly peaceful to overly aggressive.
I think justarn ( justin) got very lucky with his wyckii and even then it had its moments grabbing cichlids by the head lol , a few of the guys have got some good suggestions so far but none have mentioned irwini , Niger, giraffe cats I've had all three with mean cichlids and a jardini they all do fine Imo but do get big , I have had a big clarius in the past they do hold there own but cause a lot of disruption in the tank , which in turn causes the cichlids to start fighting
i've seen some impressive synodontis eupterus at larger sizes, fend off aggressive cichlids. Mine used to beat up my convict, if that counts for anything.
That is so true. Cichlids in one tank may behave quite differently from those in another. Add one more cichlid to a cichlid community tank and a war ensues. Or if there was war, all of a sudden it calms down... With such "unnatural" communities, it appears to almost invariably come down to trial and error. Which Justarn's thread articulates exemplary.
Yes justarns experience keeping his with larger cichlids shows it very good, the cat killed fish bigger than itself and smaller and left other fish that were bigger and smaller alone, if you want to try a wyckii, I say do what he did, grow the cichlids large, let them be established, and get the wyckii at a medium size, around 10" and try it, this way hopefully a larger cichlid will put it in its place before it gets to maturity and becomes aggressive and decides to start attempting and likely succeed at knocking everyone else off the totem pole and killing them. It can go both ways but this is likely how you'll get the best success, doing what he did.