Great advice thus far. Big water changes are important for removing any significant amount of pollutants. Most fish will not starve themselves to death and certainly not a walking catfish so have patience, it may still be settling in 
What can a Walking catfish have as food??
- Thread starter cleverGorilla78
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JUST AN UPDATE!! BOUGHT EARTH WORMS AND CLEANED AND CUT AND HE LOVES THEM!! THANK YIU FOR ALL ADVICE WILL BUY WHITEBAIT AND OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS SOON! Will update when do so. Thank you everyone
No fish can usually refuse earthworms, this is a delicacy but this can get pretty expensive over time plus I am not sure if this is entirely a balanced diet. It sounds you let the worms empty themselves before feeding them, which is what needs to be done. No need to cut them whatsoever.
As the peers had said above, if your walking catfish is healthy, the last thing you need to worry about is what it will accept as feed. It will accept anything, even for the sake of the argument, hardly edible feeds.
As the peers had said above, if your walking catfish is healthy, the last thing you need to worry about is what it will accept as feed. It will accept anything, even for the sake of the argument, hardly edible feeds.
Just moving away from feed.
A few other things you may pick up about the fish.
The marbled Clarias can be expected to get to 18” ( minimum) in a tank and at that size will be a GREAT escape artist. Ensure you have a tight fitting, heavy lid, otherwise you will be finding him on the floor.
The other thing you may learn is that Clarias love to re-decorate and can be expected to pile the gravel where they want it. As such, an under gravel filter may not work so well. (Can be tried but you may end up reverting back to a mechanical). The heater should be off the bottom also as the cat will often lay against it if it is in too handy a place and the fish could burn itself.
For info on the fish itself, planetcatfish.com
A few other things you may pick up about the fish.
The marbled Clarias can be expected to get to 18” ( minimum) in a tank and at that size will be a GREAT escape artist. Ensure you have a tight fitting, heavy lid, otherwise you will be finding him on the floor.
The other thing you may learn is that Clarias love to re-decorate and can be expected to pile the gravel where they want it. As such, an under gravel filter may not work so well. (Can be tried but you may end up reverting back to a mechanical). The heater should be off the bottom also as the cat will often lay against it if it is in too handy a place and the fish could burn itself.
For info on the fish itself, planetcatfish.com
I’ve spent the good part of 2 weeks researching and asking about all the information you told me on 2 min. Thank you haha, wish I knew this page was about well before I got him would of been so much more prepped but still couldn’t stop the excitement.
UPDATE
HES DOING AMAZING! Colours starting to come out again, very active and loving the gravel bed I’ve put in for him. Plus his 2 ft of drainpipe ?
Glad he/she is doing well.
Over time you will get a very personable fish which truly becomes a pet and comes to the surface to feed from your hand. Be careful with this though as Clarias are also easy to overfeed because of this willingness to interact and whilst this is not a great issue, due to their nature they then become even less active than usual and can get very rotund, especially as they get older.
Females especially, becoming almost tennis ball round in the belly, a mix of eggs and food/fat, males usually significantly less so. Hence one of the eases of telling sexes apart, the other being an examination of their nether regions although with an eel like fish this is more complicated.
A favourite of mine from my early fishkeeping days which is actually getting harder to find here in the uk, probably not because they are rare but because of the large numbers shops have to buy them in and the people bringing them back once they have eaten all their community fish and grown too large!
Over time you will get a very personable fish which truly becomes a pet and comes to the surface to feed from your hand. Be careful with this though as Clarias are also easy to overfeed because of this willingness to interact and whilst this is not a great issue, due to their nature they then become even less active than usual and can get very rotund, especially as they get older.
Females especially, becoming almost tennis ball round in the belly, a mix of eggs and food/fat, males usually significantly less so. Hence one of the eases of telling sexes apart, the other being an examination of their nether regions although with an eel like fish this is more complicated.
A favourite of mine from my early fishkeeping days which is actually getting harder to find here in the uk, probably not because they are rare but because of the large numbers shops have to buy them in and the people bringing them back once they have eaten all their community fish and grown too large!
I'll just chime in and agree with those who have suggested larger water changes than you are currently doing. These fish produce a lot of waste, and it's only going to get bigger and messier as time passes. The fact that it is extraordinarily tough and resistant to poor water conditions doesn't mean that you should put that to the test.
Once it eats a variety of food, you would do well to select food items that are small enough to swallow whole, but large enough that you can easily see if they are being completely eaten. Something like a block of bloodworms or blackworms or whatever will scatter lots of tiny particles that will only add to water pollution. Much better to use larger shrimp, pellets, cut fish, earthworms, etc. and adjust the size to suit the size of your fish. You want the chunk of food to just disappear "down the hatch" without being torn or scattered into smaller bits. Uneaten food pollutes a tank way faster than eaten food.
Once it eats a variety of food, you would do well to select food items that are small enough to swallow whole, but large enough that you can easily see if they are being completely eaten. Something like a block of bloodworms or blackworms or whatever will scatter lots of tiny particles that will only add to water pollution. Much better to use larger shrimp, pellets, cut fish, earthworms, etc. and adjust the size to suit the size of your fish. You want the chunk of food to just disappear "down the hatch" without being torn or scattered into smaller bits. Uneaten food pollutes a tank way faster than eaten food.
Mine eats api bottom feeder pellets and occasionally blood worms
Just thought I’d add picture for comparison. Only had him in the tub for less than 15 minutes while placed plants in tank. He later destroyed ?
