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hello, my question is will upside down catfish eat leftover food that my other fish do not eat. i guess what i am asking is...will the upside down catfish take place of corys in just eating the food that sinks to the bottom of the tank?

thankyou
john

I doubt that it will do as good of a job as corys for one reason, they like to hide as where corys are always out poking around looking for food…but no doubt that it would eat scrap food…

I believe they are bottom scavengers, and should do a somewhat decent job as a clean up crew. If you are having extra food though, you might want to consider watching how much you put in.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

No, they won't do nearly as good a job as cories will, for the reasons already given. Also, since they spend much of their time swimming upside down, they aren't as good at spotting leftovers as cories are. Upside down cats aren't bad at scavenging, but I would watch how much food went in there. They won't catch all of it.

---

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Synodonts are, IMO, FAR better at scavenging then cories. Once night settles in, the entire tank is theirs, and with those long, sensitive (multi branched) barbels, larger size, and voracious appetites, they can find and consume leftover food faster than a cory can. I don't go out of my way to feed ANY of my synos, and they are thriving.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 26-Oct-2004 22:27

i dont meen to hijack but what about ottos do they eat leftover food and algae

I have five in one of my tanks and while they do hide a bit they are great leftover cleaners. Plus they look cool

I would have to say that if you compare upside down cats to corys heres the pros vs cons:
Corys: Scavenge all Day long looking for food.
Corys: Sleep at night and arent too active at night scavenging.
Corys: Often seem to miss food on the gravel by miles, and sometimes just inches.
Upside Down Cats: Scavenge all Night long looking for food.
USD Cats: Sleep during the day arent too active in the day scavengine.
USD Cats: I would disagree that they only go "upside down" for food. My 2 USD Cats always flip right side up for the pellets I put in, at ANY time of day, except in the first early morning hours.
USD Cats: Seem to have a homing device for food, they zoom right to it, no "mindless" searching for hours.
I would suggest, if you have room for both a group of corys and a pair/group of USD cats, go for it. You will have the best of both worlds this way, as I do. I also have ottos that are active in the day, and a farlowella catfish and a gold nugget plec that are active at night.

If you dont have the room, choose whichever you prefer!. Both will do equally good jobs, but the USD Cats seem more intelligent and better hunters than the cory cats.
If I had set up my 90 before my 25, and had stocked it by itself (versus moving my 25g stock into the 90), I would have likely chosen a larger Syno for my tank, such as a featherfin or the like. Synos seem to be very intelligent fish with a lot of personality. My next big tank will definetly get a large syno cat as the showpeice bottom feeder, they are gorgeous fascinating creatures.
No offense to corys, but when I watch mine I cant help comparing them in personality and intelligence level to that of rabbits. They even kinda look alike to me.

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