Columbian Shark Catfish

[Red Devil]

I took the Puffers back, no more Puffers for me ever again.....Unless for some reason or another I decide to somehow create 30 gallon species tank, then I might reconsider Puffers, but for now its out of the question.

Heres the update so far, I took the 2 Cats home and I drip acclimated them in a bucket because they were coming from Freshwater to Brackish.

In they went after a while and they are doing good so far, they follow each other like best friends, i guess thats the schooling behavior they exhibit.

I got the 75 Gallon tank at like 1.006 SG.

I am trying to slowly bring it up to 1.010. But its proving quit difficult. I put like cups full of salt in the bucket to premix the water and when I put the hydrometer in the bucket it reads 1.029 SG after I put it in the water I test it again and the SG is still 1.006 SG.

Am I doing something wrong? How should I go abut raising it up at lease .001 SG?

i am glad you have the cats, i think you should visit the brackish forum for answers,..i do not want to tell you wrong since my hubby does our cats tank all the time..i would ask him if he were here..

 

[xspainx69]

i am glad you have the cats, i think you should visit the brackish forum for answers,..i do not want to tell you wrong since my hubby does our cats tank all the time..i would ask him if he were here..

Isn't this the Brackish Forum??? "General Brackish"


Well if anyone else knows about properly raising up specific gravity let me know.

 

[FalconKeeper]

First things first! Raise your SG very slowy and never more than .02 in a 24 hour period is what I've been told. And as long as the water you are putting in has a higher SG then the water it's going into then you are effectively raising the SG of your tank. It may take quite a while to record a difference. Also you need to rinse your Hygrometer out with fresh water inbetween every test. I stopped using a Hygrometer and switched to a Refractometer which is WAY more accuarate. Also make sure you let the water circulate for about 20 minutes before testing it. Hope that helps.

 

[xspainx69]

First things first! Raise your SG very slowy and never more than .02 in a 24 hour period is what I've been told. And as long as the water you are putting in has a higher SG then the water it's going into then you are effectively raising the SG of your tank. It may take quite a while to record a difference. Also you need to rinse your Hygrometer out with fresh water inbetween every test. I stopped using a Hygrometer and switched to a Refractometer which is WAY more accuarate. Also make sure you let the water circulate for about 20 minutes before testing it. Hope that helps.

Ok, I will keep that in mind and I will retest with the hydrometer later.

I am also considering getting a Green Spotted Scat in the near future, any idea how they react with a Mono Sebae, and an Archer and Shark Catfish?
Is this a good formula? I know that they all need full marine conditions when they reach adulthood.

Are Scats good in pairs? Do they like being alone?

 

[Red Devil]

Isn't this the Brackish Forum??? "General Brackish"


Well if anyone else knows about properly raising up specific gravity let me know.

yes sorry been rushing around so much i forgot i moved over to your thread... usually don't venture too far away from my section..

 

[aggressor09]

I dont think that the columbian will take to a cave unless its horrified into it, in which case, it should not be in the tank in the first place.
For future reference, I would not expect anything to fair well against 2 puffers, except perhaps if you wanted to get 5 or 6 columbians and hope that the majority of them make it. Though they get large, and are pretty dirty.
I had a brackish tank years ago with a fairly large greenspot puffer. I added 2 columbians and the puffer tried bullying them around for a day or 2. No big deal, a nipped fin or 2, but the puffer soon lost interest.
My columbians were INSANELY active and this may have bugged the puffer a bit. However, they both had some guts and would battle it out with the puffer for the first shot in feeding a couple weeks in.
I think your problem is the 2 puffers as opposed to one, and lacking diffusion of aggression.

 

[xspainx69]

Well just to update everyone on the situation with the Shark Catfish , they have started eating what everyone else eats in the tank which is flake foods and once in a while some pellet food.

I am currently keeping the tank at about 1.007 SG. My goal is to slowly bring it up to about 1.010. My next attempt at raising the SG will be at the next water change, I will attempt to raise it .02.


Other than that I am waiting to get a Scat sometime in the near future.

 

[Tanyoberu]

Puffers and catfish... all I can say is that EVERYBODY loves the taste of Catfish! I housed puffers and all sorts of fish together. The puffers wouldn't bother the slow moving scats, the monos or the eels. But the poor catfish would have their fins nipped constantly. I believe the saving grace was that they were so much larger than the puffers.

I did find that puffers are just busy fish! They can be distracted from being nippers if they have enough "activities" to keep them occupied. Snails work great, and there's nothing like tryptophan to keep a puffer quiet. I'd stuff my puffers with store purchased shrimp with the shells on. They'd chew on those things and learned to beg me for food rather than chase their tank mates around.

Eels and puffers are an interesting thing to watch too. Apparently, they taste horrible to each other and learn that quickly. No deaths... just a learning nibble and boundaries are established.

BRACKISH Tanks are great, hope you find joy in your learning process.

 

[DB junkie]

If you are going to do A scat then cool. If you ever want more than 1 you need to get a GROUP of them at the same time. I tried a pair of Scats 3 times..... each time one was killed. They have to be in a group. They will work great with Monos. The shoal in my brackish tank was 9 scats and 7 monos. They all got along great!!

 

[xspainx69]

Update: One of my Columbian Shark Catfish killed his partner. So now I only have 1 Shark catfish.


So much for "they love being in school". Its more like he likes being alone.​