Is glass cat hard to keep?

[mikemou]

Someone mentioned this in another thread. I'm planning to add 6-8 glass cats to my 55 community tank, but if they're hard to keep than i'll pass.
thanks!!!

 

[TankGirl]

Do you mean those kindof see-through fish with barbels? They are known as ghost catfish, but are often called a glass cat, since you can see their insides and they are a catfish. There is a fish from Africa called a glass catfish but it has black stripes and does not have the typical catfish appearance. Just wanna make sure I know what to tell you

Assuming it is the ghost cat (commonly seen at many LFS) then they are a good candidate for a peaceful community tank. They are supposed to get 6" but I have never seen one that big (I think there was a thread about this a while ago, come to think of it). Just get several as they are schooling. From what I understand they are a little sensitive, so be sure you are religious about maintaining your water quality.

 

[Fruitbat]

Kryptopterus are not particularly hard to keep if you remember:
A) They're happiest in small groups. You already have this part taken care of.
B) They're not typical bottom-grubbing catfish and will often ignore food that sinks to the bottom. They like live food but I've had success in the past feeding them frozen Daphnia and frozen bloodworms. They'll also take flake food occasionally.
C) They're not real strong swimmers so they don't like strong currents.
D) They like planted tanks where they have a place to hide. Be sure, however, to provide some open swimming areas for them when they get the urge.

Glass Catfish are great additions to a community tank but keep in mind that they can reach 6" or more and any really small fish are likely to look a lot like a snack to them.

 

[fearlessfisch]

They do like to be in groups, so it's good you're getting a bunch of them. When I had them, they were quite shy, especially of bright light. They used to hide in the plants when the bright light was on during the day, but as soon as I switched to a dimmer light in the evening, they would all come out and swim all over the tank. Maybe a darker substrate would have helped them feel more secure in the daylight.

 

[trenac]

Ghost catfish are a unique fish that are not hard to take care of. Make sure you have a shady area in your tank where they can hang out & some decorations they can get under. They are shy so it may take a while before they get comfortable coming out in the open; it took mine 2 weeks before they would come out to eat.

 

[Megalofyia]

My glasscat fish loved swimming in the current. That's where they spent a great deal of their time. I had no problems feeding them. Sometimes I fed them flakes, sometimes bloodworms, sometimes other frozen food.

 

[nyghtone]

I have a Ghost Catfish and it is my favorite fish. I plan on getting more when they are avalaible, but in Montana they are HARD to find and are very expensive when you do. Mine is almost 4" long now, and it's whiskers are fully grown. You can get a good idea of how healthy they are by how long their whiskers are, if they get stressed their whiskers will literally shrink overnight. I use this fish as a sort of health monitor for my 20 gallon tank. It spends the majority of it's time swimming in the current from my pengiun 125, and literally attacks flake food, it seems to like goldfish flakes the best. It also likes brine shrimp, but if I put both in the tank it will choose the goldfish flakes over the bs. I'd say go for it, but make sure you don't have any comets or angelfish, they will bite it's whiskers off which kills them instantly!!! I lost my second one to this, and quickly had to remove a few fish.

Good luck, Joshua...

 

[jaowl]

I have a 'collection' in my tank: 2 pictus cats--2 clown loaches--a bala shark--an irredissent shark--a raphael catfish--2 rosy barbs. and 2 snails. I seen this glass catfish(is it also call a phantom catfish?) and was debating if I should add it to my tank.

The tank is a 30 gal.

Thanks for any thoughts on this subject.

 

[Megalofyia]

Is that not too small a tank for the clown loaches and bala shark? That bala is going to get really big and they like to school with other balas. Glasscat fish are only like 5 -6 inches and I don't believe really like hanging out with fast swimmers like balas. I also thought that fish like the raphael and pictus got pretty big.