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I've just dumped another batch of live food into the community aquarium. And I've just seen something totally unexpected.

One of my new batch of Ototcinclus catfishes has just eaten a Bloodworm.

Now the textbooks say that these fishes are exclusively herbivorous algal grazers, but I've known for some time that they will eat freeze-dried Tubifex, and mine particualrly relish a 'cube treat' now and again. But this is the first time ever I've seen an Otocinclus eat something live.

It's not as if they don't have enough algae to eat (and what's more, if they want it, they have plenty of bogwood to add to the salad). They've been partaking of Otocinclus Pet Rock treats on a fairly regular basis, which I fired up in order to make sure that the new Otocinclus had enough algae to eat. And when I pop one of the rocks in, they graze it clean in about an hour. But this is something of a first, unless anyone else here on the board has seen their Otocinclus partake of the occasional live offering.

Admittedly, it was just the one. Then it went back to algal grazing on the glass and the Amazon Swordplant. But it shows that Otocinclus may, very occasionally, decide to 'ring the changes' and snack upon something that wriggles. So as well as keeping lots of rocks or bogwood bits in jars to keep them supplied with algae, Otocinclus keepers here on the board might consider watching their specimens when live or frozen Bloodworm is administered.

Meanwhile, the Panda Corys are burping happily. They are now at that "Wow, that was a good blow-out, I'm too full to move" stage, with looks of almost indecently gluttonous contentment on their faces. The Lemon Tetras and the Pencil Fish are chasing Daphnia, and the Cardinals have become so intensely coloured that the red ventral stripe looks as if it's been sprayed on in acrylic paint, accompanied by blue dorsal stripes that look like little blue fluorescent tubes. Furthermore, judging by Mata Hari's degree of roundness (she was pregnant looking even before the meal), I'd say that the patter of tiny fins is imminent - it's 22:35 on Wednesday evening as I type this, and I bet within an hour they start engaging in the now infamous Panda Cory rugby scrums

UPDATE : Make that 35 minutes. Mata Hari is taking on FOUR males at a time, and therefore well and truly living up to her name. It's exhausting just watching her



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002