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I have 5 glass catfish in my 20-gallon tank and noticed on the profile for them, it recommends "good quality flakes". Does anyone have a particular brand that is considered good quality? I feed them TetraMin pro. How does that measure up in fish food-hood?

Hi,
Everything that I have on the Glass Catfish (Kryptopterus
Bircirrhis) says that they prefer live food such as
tubifex worms, white worms, Daphnia, etc. While they have
barbels much like bottom feeding catfish, they are for
tactile use and are not ofactory organs. Any flake food
that they should miss will stay, uneaten, on the bottom
of the tank. Just in case... They should be kept in small
groups, in shallow, slow current, well planted tanks that
are free of "fast moving" fish.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

It is possible to persuade Glass Catfishes to eat non-living foods, but for best results they should be given live Daphnia and Brine Shrimp on a fairly regular basis. Also, it is advisable to keep them with companions that won't bully them or out-compete them for food. You'll find that they appreciate not only live foods administered regularly, but carefully planned aquarium furnishings such as Vallisneria-type plan thickets interspersed with swimming spaces, bogwood arches, and floating plants providing shade in certain areas of the aquarium. In conditions to their liking, with sensitive furnishings and peaceful companions that are not frenetically active (they tend to live best alongisde fairly sedate shoaling fishes and peaceful, sedate bottom feeders) they can be long lived - possibly up to 10 years.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

It's pretty difficult, IMO, to find a food that these fish WON'T eat. Flake is generally a good staple, as it already has a proper spectrum of nutrition. Furthermore, I dunno where you purchased your glasscats, but each and every kryptopterus species I've kept has portrayed highly aggressive feeding behavior (not quarrelsome, persay, but rather, robust), thus fast moving tankmates should not be an issue, especially considering that they themselves hail from highly turbulent blackwater rivers.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 24-Nov-2005 13:03

I think that Live Brine Shrimp &amp; Daphnia are the best food, but the TetraMin pro is quite good aswell.


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Thanks alot for your input! :-) They've been pretty good about eating the flake food, but I put brine shrimp in there today and they didn't touch it. My clown loaches did, though.

My school eats every flake offered, including OSI spirulina, Aquarian tropical, Hikari mini pellets, Tetra color flakes, and HBH soft brine shrimp pellets.

They also love frozen plankton, bloodworms, and brine shrimp(i usually give the spirulina enriched ones).

Also my two largest glass cats will go to the bottom and get frozen food from the substrate.

As far as the barbels, mine will often swim back and forth rapidly during feeding, and any foor that hits their barbels is very quickly eaten.

They are great fish, good luck.