Bacu Catfish
- Thread starter Pbass265
- Start date
I apologize for some of the double posts, this is my first time posting pictures. I got as many angles on here as my fish would let me. There is a pic of my aero as well as my first mollie I have spawned. They are all sharing a 55 gallon tank for the moment while I make sure my 265 is free from concrete and cycling. Hopefully this helps and I appreciate everyone’s input. If there is a certain shot I need, let me know and I’ll try to get it. I am pretty sure it is the same one Necro has. He hides all the time and is hard to feed but I put some in at night and it is gone in the morning so I can only assume he is eating it.
Yes, Pterodoras granulosus - a granulated catfish. Good pics. Hiding is typical. It will become bolder and bolder with time and size and will start feeding in the day light too. If your tank is good and everyone is healthy and eating, I am sure he is eating what you put in at night. They are quite unfussy about foods.
Free from concrete? What is it made of?
Free from concrete? What is it made of?
I had a couple threads about the never ending saga of this tank but long story short I hear from a buddy you can use regular all purpose paving sand as a substrate so I buy a few bags at home depot. I set up the tank and let it all settle but some was grey and some was brownish. I put a delhizi bichir in there and it started convulsing and died almost immediately so I floated decided to float the cat and aero overnight. In the morning I decided I didn’t like the grey sand so I was just going to siphon it out, but the grey would only come out in clumps and was difficult so I drained the whole tank only to realize it was concrete not sand. I got in and cleaned it all out with a chizzil and putty knife in about 6 hrs while I was laying in it causing concrete burns all over my body especially on my hands. I did not find out how dangerous it was until the following day when people at work told me about it. Now it is all out with PFS and 16 goldfish helping cycle it along with about half a trey of seeded biomax from a separate tank. On top of that when we bought it the guy who I bought it from accidentally shifted and it caused the silicone to shift so It has been completely resealed.
Looks great and very nice coloration as well! Can't wait to see this one grow out along with mine!!! I think I may have had a little success with mine eating some shrimp the other night. I rearranged my driftwood so that I could observe it during the day and gauge the stomach to see if it has eaten. I am inclined to think that if it has been eating, it has eaten very little or maybe nothing. Belly looks slightly bigger imo this morning. Seems very fussy compared to the other catfish in the tank. He is definitely the last to move after lights go out at night. I have sat up night after night with all the lights out in total darkness trying to observe his movements with just ambient light. I do this often to watch all my catfish. I have not yet seen this catfish move even after several hours of darkness. I fear I need to test my PH as it is reported that PH in the 8 range is not good for this fish. The water here is very hard so I may have to adjust the PH after I figure out where it's at. 
just something to keep in mind for you also.
just something to keep in mind for you also.
Terrible ordeal. Playing sand is usually recommended... and even that most keepers choose to wash and rinse well a few times before putting it in the tank (all at once if the tank is new; little-by-little if the tank is established and has fish too). Testing out tanks is better done with something like feeder goldfish or rosey reds or guppies (if they look and behave healthy).
Ya I got in a hurry and as they say haste makes waste. Mine swims around a bit but hardly ever, he is usually hidden against one of the rocks or under some fake wood. He doesn’t move much even at night and I can literally put a small piece of shrimp or fish in front of his mouth almost touching him but he won’t take it. I can’t get my aero eating shrimp or fish either but strangely enough he loves pellets and got half of one of my mollies in his mouth trying to get to one today. He spit him out b/c the molly was half of his size but a couple more inches on him and I think he will have it. I don’t know what the ph is but it is probably high due to it being temporarily in a tank with crushed coral. The new tank will have pfs and drift wood which should help. My ph is naturally low but I don’t know exactly what it is from the tap. It is 7.4 in my rbp tank with a medium sized chunk of drift wood. I’ll post pics as he grows and anyone else is welcome to do that in this thread, there aren’t many pics of them I have been able to find, especially ones in tanks. I appreciate all the replies and views and will update in a couple days, I am on sporadically because of a weird work schedule but I am hoping for the best with these guys.
My little megalodoras acts very similar. He is obviously getting out to eat, but I've never seen him do more than adjust his position within a hiding spot except when I move stuff around to clean the tank. High ph isn't ideal, but doradids are generally pretty hardy fish.
