A tank full of weirdlings...

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tyrel

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Sep 18, 2005
Messages
64
Location
nanaimo bc
I have always been attracted to the exotic and unusual, and I have been considering setting my old 20 gallon back up.

I quickly sketched out a tanks plan:

-Sand bottom
-bogwood/driftwood
-a couple smooth rocks
-lightly planted

Then I decided on some fish that I have always longed to have:

-Banjo cats
-Glass cats
-African butterfly


By this point I was getting excited. But I still have some things to work out:

I am by no means an expert fish keeper. I had trouble with whiptail cats while tending my previous tank. I could'nt seem to keep them alive. Meanwhile, my Senegal bicher and Raphael striped catfish were thriving.

How hardy are the Fish i picked out, compared to the ones i had in my previous tank?

Then I came to the subject of the number of fish I could stick in there. I would just have one African butterfly of course. But how many banjo cats and glass cats could comfortably live in there? And would the Butterfly make a quick snack of the glass cats?

I would love to get back into the hobby again, any help you guys could give me would be awesome.
 
In a 20G, size is a bit of a limiting factor when it comes to the glass and banjo cats. Both of these fish grow to 6" or so. I'd have said get one or the other, but glass cats work best in a school since they're a social fish. So, I would probably opt for just one banjo cat out of those two species.

As for the Pantodon buchholzi: a bit of a tough fish to keep. It's a surface dweller, which means it's main diet consists of insects. You'd have to try and recreate that somehow, although maybe aquarium bred have been weaned on to prepared foods or frozen stuff like bloodworm, mysis and so on. I would also guess these fish are excellent leapers from the dietary needs: insectivores usually though not always are notorious for that. So, you'd need to make sure your hood was very well and tightly fitted.
You'd need soft and acidic water for it preferably too: what is your tap water like? I'd recommend testing it just to see.

These are real oddballs, but it's great that someone is looking to keep something that 'bit different'. If it were me, I would probably opt for one banjo catfish, one butterflyfish, and then 4 or so dither fish of some sort that would be suitable tankmates. I would leave out the glass cats as a schooling fish which require a group of 3+, based on size restrictions.
 
coldmachineUK said:
In a 20G, size is a bit of a limiting factor when it comes to the glass and banjo cats. Both of these fish grow to 6" or so. I'd have said get one or the other, but glass cats work best in a school since they're a social fish. So, I would probably opt for just one banjo cat out of those two species.

As for the Pantodon buchholzi: a bit of a tough fish to keep. It's a surface dweller, which means it's main diet consists of insects. You'd have to try and recreate that somehow, although maybe aquarium bred have been weaned on to prepared foods or frozen stuff like bloodworm, mysis and so on. I would also guess these fish are excellent leapers from the dietary needs: insectivores usually though not always are notorious for that. So, you'd need to make sure your hood was very well and tightly fitted.
You'd need soft and acidic water for it preferably too: what is your tap water like? I'd recommend testing it just to see.

These are real oddballs, but it's great that someone is looking to keep something that 'bit different'. If it were me, I would probably opt for one banjo catfish, one butterflyfish, and then 4 or so dither fish of some sort that would be suitable tankmates. I would leave out the glass cats as a schooling fish which require a group of 3+, based on size restrictions.

I can readily supply food for a butterfly fish, as I keep crickets for my other pets anyways. I have heard they can also be weaned to floating pellet food.

The water in my city is very soft, and the ph stays around 7.0.

What kind of "Dither fish" do you reccomend? Could I just have a small school of 3 Glass cats? Or mabye more more Banjos? :wink:

Edit: According to my reasearch, glass cats average 4 inches, while Banjos average 5.
 
Edit: According to my reasearch, glass cats average 4 inches, while Banjos average 5.
There are two types of the commonly called "Glass Catfish". There is Kryptopterus minor that is totally transparent and reaches 3 inches, Planet Catfish says specifically 3.1". Parailia pellucida is the African Glass catfish that has an opaque black spinal chord and will reach about 6 inches, PC says 5.9". I believe that K. minor is sometimes labelled Kryptopterus bicirrhis.

If you can tell the difference and know you are getting K. minor which is the smaller one, then I think you could have a school of 6-8 in the tank along with the Butterfly fish. I have read that Glass Cats do better in a tank that has alot of cover, so a planted tank would be great for them. The ABF would probably appreciate some floating plants to hide in.

Is the tank a 20 long or high? (30 inches long or 24?) If its a 20 long, then I think you could still have room for a Banjo catfish, assuming you do regular maintenance on tanks. :)
 
JustOneMore20 said:
Is the tank a 20 long or high? (30 inches long or 24?) If its a 20 long, then I think you could still have room for a Banjo catfish, assuming you do regular maintenance on tanks. :)

It's a tall tank.

How many Banjos do you guys think I could get if I dropped the glass cats all together?

I know what I want for the top. I know what I want for the bottom. Does anyone have any favorite Middle-dwelling unusual fish to take the place of the glass cats?
 
dont african butterfly fish get like 5" as well?

really you cant keep too much in a 20 gallon tank, unless your going for tetras

the butterfly fish may or may not go for pellets, be prepared to keep him on other foods if he doesnt.

you lost your whiptails (farlowellas) though? im guessing one of 2 things happened: 1. there wasnt enough hiding places, these fish are comfortable with a densly planted part of the tank

2: they starved to death. these guys are picky when it comes to feeding, ive never seen mine eat flakes personally, i have to feed them cuccumbers and zucchini

or 3: water wasn't clean enough, i suggest weekly water changes

whiptail cats also get too big for a 20 gallon, regardless of if its long or short, as these fish get 7-8" long. my bigger one is close to 7"
 
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