My Awesome "Diurnal" Striped Raphael Catfish

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divemaster99

divemaster99

Dovii
MFK Member
Jan 10, 2014
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Pittsburgh, PA
Ever since I first got my Striped Raphael Catfish about 6 months ago, he has been very active during lights on for his species. And over the past 2 or 3 months he has started coming out of his cave for food during lights on feeding. He has even come halfway up my tank to steal food from my sailfin mollies mouth that they cant swallow. Over the past 1 month, he has begun to start a what seems to be weekly thing that I call "rampages". (PS I don't do this on purpose) Whenever I get to close to his cave to observe him (which is a bridge decoration that he has enough room to hide but I can still watch him) to quickly when he pokes his head out....he will quickly rush out the opposite side of the cave, swim up the back wall next to the heater. He will then stay there for about 1 minute before he trys to find food on the surface. Then while still at the top he will swim over to the planted side of my tank, swim down to the bottom and sit in the anacharis for a few minutes. He would probably stay there but whenever another fish gets to close to observe a fish they never see out during the day (him or her (not really sure)) he will uproot anacharis on his way back to the top and then make his way back down to the bottom. He will then proceed to "throw" rocks while finding his way back to his cave and then rest until feeding time. While he seems highly energetic (and possibly stressed) during this "rampage" he quickly calms down after returning to his cave. This will only happen about once a week. Sometimes I will approach him while he is out feeding and doesn't care at all and then that one time a week he will be just poking his head out and when I approach him, that happens.

Here are some pics from today that I got:

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If you guys want more pictures of him doing this from past times (which I have TONS of) just let me know and I will post them.

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Nice raphael, what is his size? I got 1 about 5in and he wouldnt even bother anyone looking at him up close while feeding. His not even bothered with the other cats:irwini,niger,giraffe,spotted raphael with him,although his abit pushy towards the niger. His not even bothered with my IT and arowana.
I think your raphael is spooked more than stressed,perhaps the lighting is a bit too bright for his liking
 
Mine is just shy of 3" currently, I got him half a year ago at one inch and he has grown quite quickly for a slow growing species. The lighting won't matter much since he is being moved to my 75 either today or in a week, I am actually making a thread about it because I am not so sure. He will be in with his bridge cave in the 75 although there won't many other spots available for him at the moment other than that and a driftwood cave. I am however getting more decor for him on Monday including some more driftwood, a pot, and a hollowed out brick.
 
I have 6 of these cats 3-8" surprisingly they don't seem to worried about my 24" RTC in the tank with them, mine hide all the time and only come out at night, occasionally you will see one scoot from one end of my 240 to the other during the day.
 
Divinehammer said:
I have 6 of these cats 3-8" surprisingly they don't seem to worried about my 24" RTC in the tank with them, mine hide all the time and only come out at night, occasionally you will see one scoot from one end of my 240 to the other during the day.
Click to expand...

Maybe due to the spikes they have the rtc chooses not to swallow them :)
 
Well he did it again yesterday and just now so I guess it's a daily thing now.
although he was back under his bridge much quicker so maybe it's because the lights weren't on this time.
 
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