The White-Whiskered Catfish Thread!

[Justepic]

Whoo. A lot to report today.
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First of all, the catfish has been mainly hiding around the sponge filter for the last 2 days. I am doing 60% water changes every day just in case of anything. Put in an algae wafer last night, he nibbled and it and went away. Maybe that was because the wafer is out of date. I will try and feed him bloodworms/brine shrimp today.

I turned off the lights to do a water change today and he instantly went whizzing around the tank. He looks quite majestic. In fact, I have videos on youtube of him. I will link to them here.

Video 1
Video 2-

MUSTwatch at 2:00

Watch video 2 at two minutes before reading ahead.
As you can see the fish are quite active. However, sometimes he stays still for a long time. A bit like my ropefish.
But when it was swimming around, I put my finger on the glass next to it. Instantly, he stops swimming and floats/turns over to the ground- is he faking death? I haven't heard of any other fish doing and I don't know if it is a one-time thing but it is very interesting and AWESOME!
Also, some people on FB have told me that it looks like B. macranthus. But I am not too worried about that; as long as I have a lancer I am happy.

 

[Hendre]

Super interesting behaviour! On the food, just may not be super hungry or settled in. It'll get there

 

[Justepic]

Bad news.... he is dead. I am beyond devastated.

I think I overfed him last night and this morning he was completely still but still breathing. Did a 80% percent water change but it was to late. I was doing water changes every day as well, 6 hours of bloodworms and I guess he couldn't handle it.

Spoke to some people and they have also said they are quite sensitive and only do well in soft and acid water.The person only got his lancers to live up to a year. Now I have to make a choice: buy another one and retry or wait till I am way older and have the luxuries to try and raise them.
I have learned somethings, I got a drip acclimation kit and now will remove any uneaten food in half an hour and not feed to much. Now to make a choice.0

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Sorry to hear. I find this strange. They are not that sensitive to just drop like a fly. I had problems with mine two, tried twice and lost both after several months or half a year but the problems came later, I attributed their deaths to an unknown pathogen in my water. I had no problems in acclimation and transitioning and settling down and starting to feed.

The video was funny but that it was swimming in full light didn't look right.

Sometimes fish experience too much stress in the rehoming and shipping and it does them in with some delay. This could have been the case here. Or a bad batch of bloodworms - these are known to spoil / rot.

 

[Justepic]

Yeah, the acclimating was very troublesome for the fish. That is why I ordered a drip acclimation kit. I don't whether to try again with another lancer or take break to think. I think to take a break, as they are relatively expensive as well.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Sorry to hear.
lancers can be a bit finiky. I know the marbled Lancer are awfull to ship with large mortality rates. Black lancers are generally a bit better. I bought two and only because I knew they had them in a while and they were eating and still only one survives. He is finiky eater, hiding most of the time in a half clay pipe and really slow growing.
he seems to mope a bit now that I separated him and his best buddy, an irwini cat, but they were growing at way different rates.
give it a break and try something else.

 

[Iamfish]

That sucks, sorry for your loss. Losing fish always sucks. Hopefully you try again in the future they are very cool catfish.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I could be wrong but at present I'd not guess it was the acclimation. Perhaps I think so because I have never used drip acclimation, just exchanged water by cups and pitchers at a time.

Another thought is to make sure the fish you buy, any fish, spends time at the seller's place and starts feeding in their hands and displays adequate behavior and appearance. Otherwise, the risk increases substantially that the fish you are buying might come already ill or having sustained too much stress that it cannot be saved.

Most earnest and diligent vendors, who treasure their name, do this anyway as a standard practice but plenty others may not and may feel motivated to pass along an unproven fish or even a troubled fish for the momentary monetary compensation in lieu of long term success of having established a good name and rapport.

 

[Justepic]

Yeah, the shop that is near me sells rare and monster fish, in fact, you can ask them for any fish and they will try and give you a quote. I was going to try and buy some wild-caught apistos later this year. The day after the fish came in, I bought it so I put in a quarantine tank. I don't know if that is a good practice ar not but I thought I was lucky to have a shop like that near me. Who knows; I also get too excited and let the employee catch the fish... oh well. The fish shop raised the price for the lancer from £20 to £30 so it is a bit expensive for my pocket money, especially when I can get other fish in that range which is much easier to care for, and fish I can breed, such as the aforementioned apistos. I bought 2 starlights L183 plecos and 1 super red bristlenose instead of the catfish with my pocket money ( even though it cost £15 more) and hope to score with them. There is much less chance of them, dying on me and I think it is much more worth getting lancer when I have my own fish room or time and money to try and care for(and experience!){and knowledge from other keepers of lancers}.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, I honestly have no clue what this is!

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

... The day after the fish came in, I bought it so I put in a quarantine tank. I don't know if that is a good practice ar not ...

I guess I didn't make myself clear ... yet this is but my opinion... I tried to describe how this would be a bad, risky practice. If the shop told you and you knew the fish has just come in, it's on you, you took the gamble and lost. No shop's fault here.

There is a very much finite amount of stress a fish can take. Catching, bagging, flying on a roaring plane, acclimating to new water and tank, within a day getting caught again, bagged, taken somewhere else, acclimated to yet another new water and tank can easily be too much on any given fish. Stress kills.

This route is direct from farmer to your LFS then to you - best case scenario. But it can also include one more or two or even three more stopovers at exporter's, importer's / transhipper's, etc. And the stress builds up, the more so the shorter these stopovers are and the quicker their succession is. Plus the fish is not eating. Plus it is picking up pathogens in each new water...