Striped Raphael Catfish bunching up in corner for no reason...

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Syxx676

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 25, 2009
113
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Ohio
ok, so i just wanted to get a couple of these to help eat the leftovers n such in my tank... well when i went to the pet store, the tank of Raphael Catfish were seriously all bunching up and swimming all over each other in the corner.

the guy at the store of course couldn't tell me why, but yea just wondering!

anyways, i have one raphael catfish and a corie? in my tank. the raphael is still in hiding...
 
Hoyo12;3294063; said:
Raphael Catfish will hide during the day, and come out at night to eat any food they find. They do like to hide in corners of aquariums, which still puzzles me... Mine usually is found in the back corner of the tank, hiding in the rocks.
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I totally agree, my two hide between a rock and piece of driftwood together. I see them during the day maybe once every two weeks if I am lucky. The only time I see mine is in the morning when the lights first come on.
 
you might yell at me (or not), but i got them to clean up after my 3 baby piranhas... should i be turning the lights off for them? i keep them dim a lot, but still. the Raphael Catfish gets along with them just fine. the corie i got loves to bug them for some reason...
 
Syxx676;3294100; said:
you might yell at me (or not), but i got them to clean up after my 3 baby piranhas... should i be turning the lights off for them? i keep them dim a lot, but still. the Raphael Catfish gets along with them just fine. the corie i got loves to bug them for some reason...
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I don't agree with it once they get close to being adults but we all have done and will do things others will yell at us for. The corydora I would worry about getting eaten or nipped at constantly if you are not keeping up with your feedings. The cat, not so much IMO. They are no where to be found (should be at least if you have hiding places) so I would think issues with the catfish would be slightly less risky.

You don't need to keep the lights off, most of us use a timer. The catfish will know when it's time to come out.
 
oh... yea, this is my first tank and i've just been doing a lot of research and getting advice. and of course i would never feed or let some adult piranha just have their way with my Raphael. he has good hiding spots for now though.

anyways, i do not have a timer for my light. when do you usually have it off?
 
you most likely will not see much activity until the lights are off. i have a blacklight on my tank as a moonlight and thats when i would see the spotted raphael active when i had him
 
hm, maybe i should get one! i also wanted to note that i've had 4 zebra danio fish in there since the cycling process and they've yet to be bothered.
 
Get used to the Raphael hiding. Mine comes out at feeding times, but thats it. Maybe a couple of minutes a day. He'll search for a few morsels, then back to his cave. I went weeks not seeing him when I first got him...
 
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