Shy oxydoras niger

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Beetlebug515

Beetlebug515

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 28, 2015
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Hey guys. I brought home a Niger catfish a couple of weeks ago and can't seem to get him excited about eating. I never see him. Even at night. I have tried a wide variety of foods to try to draw him out and get him eating well, but nothing has worked so far. How do your guys' nigers act? He has some good dither in 8 uaru amps. and 2 juvenile temensis. Lighting is pretty subdued as well. I just wish I could get him eating more.
 
I have a pretty decent size Granulosus that is super shy too, I'm pretty sure he chomps on my plants and the pleco zuchini at night. I try to target feed him some hikari pellets, which he will eat. But it took quite a while after adding him to the tank for him to start eating. He's a big fatty now. Hang in there, he should settle in.
 
I did try shrimp pellets, as well as frozen bloodworms, krill, shrimp, cichlid pellets, massivore, algae wafers, zucchini, beef heart, mysis shrimp, and even a piece of raw chicken.
 
I have two of them (9" and 17"). They both hide in pipes but come out when I put food in the tank. I feed them sinking pellets.
I also have a Giraffe Nose cat that is always out swimming around.
My Irwini, Striped, and Spotted Raphel cats I almost never see.
 
All doradids tend to be hiders. The older and larger the more they come out. I swore my irwini never moved or ate for the first couple years. Now I see him every morning and getting fatter. I have similar stories about other doradids.
 
KAWAMIKIE said:
I have two of them (9" and 17"). They both hide in pipes but come out when I put food in the tank. I feed them sinking pellets.
I also have a Giraffe Nose cat that is always out swimming around.
My Irwini, Striped, and Spotted Raphel cats I almost never see.
Click to expand...
I used to have a niger and giraffe cat together and although that particular niger was active it was nowhere near the activity level of the giraffe.The giraffe can easily out eat and outgrow the others...
rodger said:
All doradids tend to be hiders. The older and larger the more they come out. I swore my irwini never moved or ate for the first couple years. Now I see him every morning and getting fatter. I have similar stories about other doradids.
Click to expand...
Agreed on all of them being hiders,they are nocturnal in the wild...I got bored with my two irwini because of that and traded them off to another member.
Try dropping a few earthworms in at night.
 
I've got a couple of nigers had since 2" , ones still shy at 12" the others just started coming out a lot more he's about 14" .
Both seem to prefer pellets to fresh but will eat pretty much anything that hits the bottom , they are known for hiding like the others have already said above , I suppose once they get to a certain size it gets a lot harder to hide away :D
 
Thanks for the replies guys, mine is at about 4 inches, but he's under weight. His head is way thicker than the rest of his body. The fish store he came from was clearly not taking any interest in making sure he ate. I was able to get him to eat an shrimp pellet yesterday and I tried very dim blue lights to see if he would come out last night. He didn't. It's my understanding that nigers have not been bred in captivity, so all examples are wild caught. Is this true? I'm thinking of moving him to my quarantine tank until I can get some weight on him.
 
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