Salt water catfish.

[BILL & THERESA MEISTE]

I was wondering if anybody had any experiance with saltwater catfish? Are they worth having in a FO tank, or would they be a problem? Appreciate any info. you might have. Thanks.

 

[BILL & THERESA MEISTE]

we were told they are good bottom feeders, cleaning up food that is left behind by other messy eaters (we have a few messy ones and more to come eventually). Our tank is 300 gallons and we have a large protein skimmer, micron filter bag, fluidized filter bed. We currently have 3 puffers, an eel, five small damsels (these will become food eventually) and we plan to add a wrasse, a lionfish or two, and a triggerfish. Would it be helpful (for clean-up) to house a couple of tiny catfish until they get too big, then give them away? They are very inexpensive.

 

[Yellowboy]

the only saltwater catfish i know of is the coral catfish and they grow BIG! I had a school of several of them and was amazed at how fast they grew, unfortuanetely they passed on. They also have a very potent sting some say equivalent to that of a lionfish, produced and injected through a single dorsal spine. They look nice as juveniles with the white and black striping but this will fade to a dull brown when in adulthood they also will no longer school. Overall i would not advise this fish

 

[Henry1]

I had kept a school of 12 juveniles (2 inches) in my 120G last year.
Agree with Yellowboy's experience.
When young, their schooling behavior is a wonderful sight to watch as they foray out the moment it detect the presence of food during feeding time.
At night, their actions are more interesting as they scourge every rock fiercely, in search of anything edible including small fish like dartfish.

They grow real quick.
When larger, ~5inch onwards, schooling decrease and they spend most of the daytime under rock ledges and caves.
They are eating machines as they get bigger and can become quite daunting for others. My children called them gangsters.

I finally released them back to sea as they really get too big (~7 inches) and too many for a 120G -- not forgetting the potential danger of getting stung when doing maintenance.

Cheers

 

[Mouse]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

We currently have 3 puffers, an eel, five small damsels (these will become food eventually)

What now that the little Damsels have served their purpose cycling the tank no doubt.

Please do yourself and those little fish a favour and take them back to the LFS. There is no need for these fish to be used for either cycling or feeding, and i question the integrity of our LFS for suggesting you do so.

 

[BILL &amp; THERESA MEISTE]

Mouse, it was not planned that way. The tank was cycled using liverock. But the damsels are in there just the same. Have you ever tried to catch a damsel in a 300gal tank with rock work, just not that easy. I don't take lightly the thought of buying something just to have it killed. That is why we use frozen only.