Interesting new african featherfin catfish feeding behavior

[LyndaB]

I keep Apache, my featherfin, in a tank with emperor tetras and my blood parrots. These fish are real pigs which has sometimes made attempting to get food just to Apache an exercise in futility.

He's always been pretty shy and I'd have to sit pretty still in the chair to be able to observe him. Given that he's the most handsome fish I've ever seen, I never felt I got to see him often enough. That's their nature anyway, it seems, so I figured it would always be like this and I was cool with that. Because he would be hidden away when the tank was being fed, he was always a little late to the party food-wise. He would come out to scavenge an hour after the feeding.

About a week ago, I decided to try to spread the food out more in the tank, giving everyone an equal opportunity to feed. So, I dropped the food down into the filter flow. The only place to access this flow is the left back corner of the tank, which happens to be where Apache's cave is.

It took him a few days, but then within 5 minutes of turning on the tank light, he'd meet me at the top left corner to see what was on the menu. He's no longer shy and where I always thought he was a delicate eater, now I see him swallow shrimp pellets whole!

It's been such a treat to watch him doing aquarium acrobatics while he darts in and out of the food, picking and choosing what he wants. Now, when he comes out in the morning, he stays out.

If you have a shy featherfin, maybe you could try this feeding method to see if it would work for you!

 

[Gboy66]

Thats so cool! I usually just drop the food outside phineas's cave (my featherfin) and he will come out in minutes, but then, he will go back inside, and sit upsidedown in the cave hahaha...i wish mine would be a bit more social

 

[meegosh]

He's no longer shy and where I always thought he was a delicate eater, now I see him swallow shrimp pellets whole!

You should watch this... the pellets, if they are not presoaked, can expand in the fish's stomach and cause problems. I always have to be sure to distract my angel when I feed pellets to my bottom feeders, she'll gobble them up before they hit the bottom.

The shyness of the the syno's seem to go away after a month or so. When I had mine it would always come up to the top of the tank when I opened the lid. The rest of the fish would follow once I put my finger in the tank - I have my fish trained.

Best of luck with your syno, mine is probably close to two years old and is absolutely HUGE. He's currently in a 150g with cichlids at a buddy's house.

 

[LyndaB]

I presoak all dried foods, but thanks for that tidbit of advice. I know many people don't.

I've actually had Apache for, geez, over 6 months, I'd say. It took him a really long time to even cruise the tank floor without spooking.

I thought they only got to 6-8 inches or so. No?

 

[meegosh]

Last time mine was laying out in front of his tank we measured him at ~10". The other ones he have are more around 7" which I think is more of the norm. I took a picture when we measured him but I have since switched phones. I'll see if I can dig it up some night.