Can the sucker fish live off the leftovers?

[yh88]

I wonder whether the 2 common (brownish, patterned white belly - looks like garra pingi pingi) catfish (now 1.5 in, 3 inches maximum adult size??) I have can survive just on the leftovers (will there be leftovers with 8 mountain clouds, 8 small red swordtails, 1 silver dollar -3.5in, 1 cherry barb, 1 head and tail lights + 1 other if I feed them 2/3 times a day) of flake/pellets/bit food? Or do I have to feed it wafers meant for catfish?

The trouble with feeding these catfish with wafers is that the silver dollar will finish them off before the catfish can get to them. I don't want too many pieces on the bottom if left uneaten. :roll:

[LYNDYLOO]

Hi yh88,

You could try feeding your Silver Dollars some Lettuce, Zucchinni, Silverbeet, (mine used to LOVE all of these), something like that to keep them occuppied while your Catfish is having the Wafers.

Good Luck

Lynda

[sharn]

a good trick my buddies mentioned another site (for their clowns in an oscar tank) is to get a piece of long tubing, pvc pipe etc and pop that into the water near the cats hiding holes then drop the food down thru that? that way other piggy fish cant get their food if you pop it in their hiding hole.

plecos will eat leftovers but they shouldnt just be left to their own devices, the other fish get fed their special diets and plecos need the same attention.

it will be a bit tricker with other vegie eaters in the tank but it shouldnt be too hard to work out a system to get them both fed

[jude]

or you can put the wafers in at lights out because some of those fish are nocturnal

[plecs]

my concern is that you have one only of a lot of schooling fish. the silver dollar, cherry barb and head and tail light tetra all like friends of the same kind around to make them feel happy.

I would go with jude (hi jude) on the feeding, pop some wafers in after lights out (in the room as well as the tank) and the bottom feeders will be happy.

But think about getting some friends!

plecs

[yh88]

Can the sucker fish 'see' the wafers in the dark? I suppose they rely on smell and talking about smell, the silver dollar go 'crazy' when I drop wafers into the tank. They can smell it from a mile! so to speak. In fact one of 2 that I had might have eventually died from the stress of being trapped inside a hideout when both of these fish went into the 'hole' to retrieve a wafer lodged inside. Eventually one of the now surviving silver dollar managed to extricate itself, the other had to be physically aided to get out of it!

I find that if you have a pair of whatever fish, they tend to fight each other all the time ( I dont think it s mating behavior). My 2 catfish are always at each other. That s why they lose the wafer to the silver dollar or other fish. :lol:

[Pegasus]

Could you please add your location to your profile YH88.

This will assist in asking and answering questions.

Thanks.

Bill

Mod.

[sharn]

cats are often very territorial and this could be why your seeing problems. if its not being territorial its trying to establish dominance in the tank, youve gotta have a alfa fish :lol: