Not-nocturnal bottom dwellers (plecos, catfish, loaches)?

[newhobbist]

I want to buy some catfish/pleco/loach to share the bottom of my tank with my Bolivian Ram. I really like some of plecos, but almost all of them (as well as loaches) are nocturnal fish and won't be seen very often during daytime. Since the main reason for keeping fish is to enjoy looking at them, I would like to find some bottom dwellers that stay active with lights on.
Any suggestions will be apreciated.

 

[Blucat]

cory catfish

 

[RoK]

For what size tank?

 

[zilla870]

get some panda corycat they are very cute and only get 2" best to get 2 to 3 and they will school together

 

[newhobbist]

I've got 72g tank and look for something that will grow to 4-7". I don't really like corrys and, also, I heard that Bolivian Ram will give them hard time.

 

[krap101]

for corys i have some melanus and pandas. the pandas dont care about light but the melanus are like lil moles.

 

[Big C]

I used to have a clown loach, named Big C... I still miss him a lot. He was digging in the gravel most of the day. He would go in his cave from time to time, but I don't remember going to look at the tank, at any time and not seeing him around doing his loach thing....

My tank is too small for another one of those, so I settled for three panda coris... until I go to a larger tank. They ARE cute!

 

[newhobbist]

What is about corry cats that everyone loves? They dont' look that nice. Is that their behavior? I can probably relate it to my case with Bolivian Ram. When I added it to the tank, it was the least colorful fish. But, with time it became my favorite because its look and behavior.
If I get 3-4 corris, will I we able to add some smaller pleco later? How do they co-exist?
And again, does anyone have Bolivian Ram in one tank with corry? Does Ram causes any problems.

 

[SteveM]

By 2 BN plecos come out whenever they feel like it, day or night. They will run and hide if the goldfish get too interested, but otherwise they just roam around eating algae off the bottom.

[edit] Yep, just went and looked and they are both out and busily cleaning right now

 

[Guest]

What is about corry cats that everyone loves? They dont' look that nice. Is that their behavior?

I wondered this exact same thing. They kind of look like little aquatic rats. But since I got them I find myself watching them all the time, them and my frogs are both very interesting fish to watch move about.

 

[RoK]

I used to think to cories and loaches were ugly. After seeing them around a lot I still don't like many cories (I like peppered & some others) but now like the look of most loaches. I don't know why, maybe I just got used to their look?

Anyway, you could get 1 or a few pictus cats in that tank, they are very active and most don't mind light (unless they are sick or something, I speak from experience with these). Do you like the pictus catfish? They are incredibly beautiful and great fish IMO.

 

[krap101]

dont pictus get big?

 

[RoK]

There are 2 different ones that are sold, one gets bigger than the other. I'm not sure how to tell them apart but the bigger one will not get bigger than 6-7". They usually max out at about 4.5-5". They do great in a tank with 50+ gallons.
I'm talking about the Pimelodus pictus BTW.
Most pics on the web don't do them justice though. :? Here's an OK pic:

www.planetcatfish.com/images/full/pimelodidae/pimelodus/pictus/1.jpg

You have to copy & paste into browser for it to work, they don't allow hotlinking.

 

[newhobbist]

I do like pictus catfish, but I've heard they can grow to 10" in a year or two. Also, I have 8 small rasboras (about 3/4" each) and think they might be eaten (though I don't really mind as long I see the cat during a day time). Another problem with them is that pictus cat is considered to be a group fish and 2-4 cats are recomended to be kept together, which is not good for me since I would like to have greater variety of larger fish.

 

[RoK]

I do like pictus catfish, but I've heard they can grow to 10" in a year or two.

That is not true.
They may eat the rasboras though, I have never seen a pictus eat a fish but I've heard they do.

 

[Guest]

i bought 2 corey cat's just at the beginning and even though they aren't really colorful they are really cute and really active and now they are one of my favorites.