Black Driftwood cat (Trachycorystes trachycorystes)

[fishguy1978]

My LFS has a 10in Trachycorystes trachycorystes. I am seriously fighting the urge to purchase this beautiful cat. I could potentially house it in my 120g with a H. Liberifer Severum and 6 M. Hypsauchen silver dollars. I have 2 spotted (4in/100mm) and 2 striped (5in/125mm) Rafaels in the tank though.
Would the T. try to eat the rafael cats?

 

[kno4te]

I’d say no cause I have mine with much smaller blochii and batrochoglanis sp. and leaves them all alone.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I too would say probably not. But probably means there is still risk. Read plenty of koltsixx accounts of his pair he has had for 14 years. His female had bouts of predatory activity, supposedly connected with the breeding times / urges.

The fish looks exceedingly thin.

 

[kno4te]

If it remains thin despite feeding then have to treat for parasites fishguy1978 .

 

[fishguy1978]

I too would say probably not. But probably means there is still risk. Read plenty of koltsixx accounts of his pair he has had for 14 years. His female had bouts of predatory activity, supposedly connected with the breeding times / urges.

The fish looks exceedingly thin.

I think it's a wc. The owner showed it to me when it first arrived. He tossed in some feeder goldfish to draw it out of hiding.

 

[mtuttle02]

Aquarium Paradise?

 

[fishguy1978]

Aquarium Paradise?

I'm not telling, you might try to beat me to it yes

 

[mtuttle02]

I'm not telling, you might try to beat me to it yes

I wouldn’t! I noticed the Peacock Bass. I bought two from him last week. Still trying to get them to try pellets ?

 

[koltsixx]

My LFS has a 10in Trachycorystes trachycorystes. I am seriously fighting the urge to purchase this beautiful cat. I could potentially house it in my 120g with a H. Liberifer Severum and 6 M. Hypsauchen silver dollars. I have 2 spotted (4in/100mm) and 2 striped (5in/125mm) Rafaels in the tank though.
Would the T. try to eat the rafael cats?

I too would say probably not. But probably means there is still risk. Read plenty of koltsixx accounts of his pair he has had for 14 years. His female had bouts of predatory activity, supposedly connected with the breeding times / urges.

The fish looks exceedingly thin.

I think you'll be okay. As kno4te said he hasn't had any problems with his and I think thebiggerthebetter has had similar experiences. And for me I originally had 4 and they never gave me issue until much later in life. Probably around my 7th year owning them. By that time I regretfully had rehomed 2 of them and I think they perished shortly after.

It has always been my female who ate or tried to eat her tankmates some who had been fine with her for a year or more than she just decided to taste them. Most where new additions and as thebiggerthebetter said IMHO it's related to breeding conditioning. As it always happens this time of year and is always preceded and succeeded by breeding attempts. I'm not sure why after so many successful locks they have yet to produce any offspring.

Thus far my female has eaten Datniodies polota and attempted but couldn't actually eat them because of their size but successfully killed Rhinodoras Dorbignyi and some of my Crenicihla and recently like last week a Puntioplites proctozystron. There are a lot more but those are what comes to mind now. Also worth noting is that I believe kno4te and thebiggerthebetter had the black/dark belly Trachys while mine have bright white bellys. Possible different catch locations? And possibly a reason for our different experiences regarding their behaviors between the three of us.

 

[kno4te]

Only thing I’ll add is it’s been with other small cats for a long time. Since it was small. Well fed and never shown any aggression. Very active at night.