Wallace's shoehead catfish

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fishhead0103666

fishhead0103666

Alligator Gar
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May 14, 2018
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20180813_062713.jpg Hello everyone, I have recently purchased a wallace's shoe head catfish purchased from liveaquaria's divers den. He was said to be 3 inches but I say he's more like 2 inches, I'm not complaining though since he's a diamond in a coal mine.

First off, some things I'd like to mention about the fish in general.
The fact that he has a tall skinny body like a silver dollar and a fat flat head like your average catfish creates such a unique look when combined.

Now to what I've noticed about the fish.

Whenever he "sleeps" then wakes up, I have noticed that part of his body, the tall skinny part, will turn white. I'm thinking that this is natural for him?

Whenever a fish bumps into him it's like he doesn't even realize it. My senegal bichir has basically rammer him with his head. It made Mr.shoehead do a 180 but he wasn't even phased by it. Very interesting.

I got some earthworms because of him and when I cut up one and put some in there no one really knew what to do with them at first since they had never eaten them before which gave my shoehead about 10 mins to eat a piece. It was right beside his head for all of those 10 minutes. Well, the 10 minutes went by and a port hoplo came by and ate it without a second thought :/. Now all of the fish eat them and I can't target feed him in the tank.
Anyone know of any good ways to target feed a fish that takes a long time to eat? (I'm assuming he will eat.)

Anyone who has wallace's shoehead catfish, is this normal? 20180813_062727.jpg
 
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Oh yeah, sorry about all the smudges on the glass. Gotta wipe down my tanks because I'm not the most careful person when doing water changes haha. Water drips down the glass all the time :p.
 
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These are normally stuck under or in prices of wood. It’s notnised to being out in the open. Also most often nocturnal and active at night. Probably still getting used to the tank. So give it some places to hide and place food at the opening of the hide area. It should take small pellets and flakes w/o any problem.

The white coat on tail isn’t right. Maybe a little fin damage/rot from stress. Keep the water clean and should get better.

He only thing to add is watch the polys. If the catfish was bigger I wouldn’t worry but it’s quite small. Suggest even separating it for awhile till it gets bigger. Growth is slow.

Awesome catfish.
 
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I wanted to give the little guy some driftwood to hide under but my sun catfish got himself stuck and ended up giving himself an infection so I'm hesitant to do so.

The odd thing about the white patch is that it went away within a few minutes of me turning the light on.

None of my fish have ever eaten anything alive before the worms last night so I was thinking he'd be pretty safe with them. I have a 20 gallon high that I use as a quarantine and hospital tank. Reckon that I should move him to that tan so he can grow and I can monitor his food intake?
I'd probably have to move a filter I leave on my 55 to the 20 gallon so it won't be uncycled.

What ya think so far?
 
The tail should be all brown but would watch. Would move it and give a little driftwood. Especially if u can move a filter.
 
To be honest I'm not too concerned about the white on the tail. Years ago when I had some harlequin rasboras they would turn nearly all black at night then go back to their bronze and black color when I turned the lights on. I'm assuming that it's like this with the shoehead but he doesn't have any white on him normally so I'm not quite sure what's happening?

I'll move him today.
 
Give him somewhere to hide,and like many catfish they prefer to eat at night/when it's dark
 
Do ya reckon a pot would be good in addition to driftwood or can it be by itself? I'm still hesitant to add driftwood because my sun catfish got his fat self stuck in there.
 
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