Got an update guys! The fasting has finally ended. I caught 2 feeder barbs a while ago and tried hand feeding stimpy. At first he's hesitant, then as he swallowed one, it wasnt long till he downed another. He seemed to like the taste of these barbs. Good thing i had a bunch in a feeder tank gut loaded with hikari lionhead pellets. I released 10 more in the tank and the gulper ate 8 of em!! :thumbup:
Gulper Catfish tank
- Thread starter ericmagnus
- Start date
Got an update guys! The fasting has finally ended. I caught 2 feeder barbs a while ago and tried hand feeding stimpy. At first he's hesitant, then as he swallowed one, it wasnt long till he downed another. He seemed to like the taste of these barbs. Good thing i had a bunch in a feeder tank gut loaded with hikari lionhead pellets. I released 10 more in the tank and the gulper ate 8 of em!! :thumbup:
He ate another 10 feeder barbs just now. Here's stimpy all round and fat again. I keep the limit to 10 barbs a day since they're small.
Any advice on how i could train my lil guy to eat shrimp or silversides? he loves red jewels. thats the only thing he eats now. and rosy barbs. But id like to get him off live food as well
Getting Gulpers off live in my experience is pretty easy. Since Gulpers will snap at almost anything, aren't skittish just defrost some shrimp, don't be afraid to get your arm wet be patient and hand feed them. Hardest part is trying not to feed them live while trying to train them but don't worry all driftwoods can handle extended periods of time not eating. My Trachy's for instance sometimes go 3-4 moths without eating(this started when they hit the 6 year old mark) looking none the worse for wear. After months of not eating they look just as thick as the day they started fasting. That's not to say I'd try starving them 3-4 months while trying to break them off live, just letting you know if a month goes buy don't worry too much.
The other major difficulty occurs once they are broken off live. Gulpers hunt by scent and aren't particularly quick so if there's anything else competing for the shrimp in the tank they might get out competed for said shrimp if once trained the shrimp is just dropped in. Other thing to note is shrimp aren't very nutritious so slitting them open and inserting quality pellets would be necessary to make sure the Gulper gets what he/she needs. As a matter of fact sometimes the addition of a strong smelling pellet inserted in the shrimp has the added benefit of motivating the gulper to taking the shrimp.
The other major difficulty occurs once they are broken off live. Gulpers hunt by scent and aren't particularly quick so if there's anything else competing for the shrimp in the tank they might get out competed for said shrimp if once trained the shrimp is just dropped in. Other thing to note is shrimp aren't very nutritious so slitting them open and inserting quality pellets would be necessary to make sure the Gulper gets what he/she needs. As a matter of fact sometimes the addition of a strong smelling pellet inserted in the shrimp has the added benefit of motivating the gulper to taking the shrimp.
Great advice you got there man. Thanks. So when finally trained, will they lose their hunting instincts? Or at least look forward to the dead food rather than chasing feeders around or trying to swallow tankmates? I dont really care if they do lose their hunting instincts, if it would mean more peace of mind that stimpy's tankmates will be safer
No problem, as for them losing their hunting instinct; no animal I know of ever truly does. Even cats and dogs who have been domesticated for ever can have their instinct to hunt triggered. With that said in my experience Gulpers will always be extremely predatory even if hand fed. Their instinct will always tell them to hunt if the opportunity presents itself. That plus their poor ability to compete for dead foods makes them poor candidates for a community.
How ever there are some aspects of their habits and abilities that may be used to your advantage that maybe used to make co-habbing them with other fish slightly more feasible. One being they don't really chase, just merely wait till a fish is within striking distance or will sneak up on a fish after lights out. They're agility and swimming speed is extremely lacking so fast and wary fish might be tried such as Danios. With a tank your size they're probably one of your better options as long as there's only one Gulper as if there's two a Danio might run right into another Gulper while trying to avoid a second or third Gulper. If you do try another helpful practice would be to use a night light so the Danios will always have the advantage of seeing the Gulpers while trying to avoid them. The best bet how ever is getting a large peaceful fish that's very deep bodied that can't be swallowed. If you had a larger tank I would suggest something like the Piaractus mesopotamicus/Yellow Belly Pacu Jeff Rapps/TUIC is selling. Their very deep bodies would make them hard if not impossible to swallow and with a max size of 18 inches they'd make decent tankmates for even a full grown Gulper.
Hmmm. I see. That's quite reasonable. Nice point. I wonder tho, will other wide/fat catfishes work? I currently have a striped raph in there with the gulper. Same size. They seem to be always together. What ive observed is that they dont really mind the company, but when a red jewel or a barb gets near their imediate area, the gulper suddenly goes bonkers and snaps at the jewels. I noticed stimpy isnt really interested with bottom dwellers. Is this the same with you or other's gulper cats? Even a small siamese algae eater who sometimes bonds with them is left alone. Puzzling.
