Cats with the most character.

[SimonWoodstock]

Recently I have really grown to like cats and other bottom dwellers more and more, mainly because all of the ones i have owned have had a personality of there own. I just thought i would ask everyone else what there favorite cats (and other bottom dwellers) were there personal favorites based on personality.

As you have probably read, I really like my banjo cat. He is pretty cool. He just lays around all day without a care in the world, and it is very funny to watch him swim when he does decide to burn some carbs. Hopefully one day, I will have a tank setup for just them..and maybe a betta to add a little life since they just sit around most of the time.
Even my plain old pleco is fun to watch when he decides to make his presence known.

Anyway, I would like to read some of your favorites, and stories if you have any interesting ones. Maybe I will take note of some diff. types for when I get my large tank next year hopefully...(thinkin about clown loaches at the moment, but still have plenty of time for a change in mind)

[SimonWoodstock]

here is a pic of my cat hangin out on his new sandy area i put in for him.

i posted about it in another forum so go here for a link to the pic.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16712

[Stephen]

I used to enjoy watching the young channel cats I kept cruise the bottom looking for food. It only happened at feeding time and when the lights were out though. It was also kind of interesting watching them play/fight when they were in their den... They were always active until they got around 8 inches. After that they just lay around when not eating or searching for food.

[dethjam316]

"angelica" cats (pimelodus pictus, i believe is the scientific name) are really active cool fish if you don't mind them being jerks that eat and/or attack everything. zamora cats are cool if you can see in the dark and are up until 4am every night. cory cats are cool if you have a million of them (some would argue one, but i really enjoy them when you have a "swarm"! nothing's cooler than 20 of these guys going zwooooop up a sandy underwater hill!!!!). upsidedown cats are super cool. there are a lot of good catfish!! i need more tanks!!!!!

if you extend this to "bottom dwellers", i also really love my clown, yoyo, and skunk loaches. the clowns are probably the most active throughout the whole tank, but the yoyos give em a run for their money. the skunk loaches, of which i actually have the most, tend to hide until feeding time or night time, when they come out and hover and zip around. i really enjoy them. they also have become more and more active during the day, thanks to following around the yoyos. i also have a couple spiny eels, which are spectacular, again, if you're up really late. doesn't it just kill you when you can't remember how many aquariums you have up and running when you're asked, but you still want more?

[Zack]

My favorite catfish i've kept so far has been corys and hoplos. I've kept pictus,stripe and chocolate raphaels,lace cats,upside down cats,rusty/salfin/common/clown/and bulldog plecos,and several large pims but nothing is more fun then a school of corys and a small group of hoplos,they are always doing something and always look like they're having fun.

[clayt101]

I am a big pleco fan, but when it comes to personality, you have to go with clown loaches:)

[bortsamson]

My cory has alot of attitude, but my pleco is by far the best to watch. I even rescued him from Wal-Mart of all places. In their tanks, he was swimming rather lifelessy and the "expert" there said he hadnt been eating in a while, so I got a "discount" because they were getting a new shipment and they wanted to get rid of what they had. Well, the first night he found a cave and hid there, at least untill I turned out the lights. Then he became active, and BOY did he clean that tank. I feel rather good about saving a fish from certain death. He's hilarious too, cause when I put pellets in, he "stalks" his "prey". He meanders around the general area of the food, then finds a plant to make himself less visable. Then he stays motionless for a bit, maybe 30 seconds later he jumps at the pellets and munches away. Algae wafers are a different story, he slowly creeps on them and then grabs them and its gone before long. By far one of the most entertaining fish I have bought:) :) Oh yes, and at night, when he is doing his algae sucking job, if I turn the light on he freezes, then darts away into his cave. Almost like *click* "uh oh, he found me!! Better hide!" Ida know, I think its kinda funny

[SimonWoodstock]

ha, that reminds me of my pleco. I have only seen him eating algae wafers once, and never a pellet. (i put them in at night and dont really watch) But when he is cleaning the algae off the glass and driftwood i will slowly walk up and watch him. Sometimes he sees me, i assume, and freezes for about 15 seconds and darts behind the driftwood to hide. He loves that wood. Sometimes i will spend 15 or 20 minutes just looking for him, and when i find him, he was right under my nose in plain sight stuck to a branch off of it or something. They are defninently funny creatures.:cool:

[JSchmidt]

I think a group of Synodontis petricola are terribly entertaining. Unlike some synos, these guys will come out and play in the daytime, especially if you have good number of them. Very pretty and entertaining fish, IMO.

Jim

[Bittabit]

I am new to this whole thing and I only have one catfish, an albino cory. He is the cutest thing, he darts all over the place, skimming the glass, but first thing in the morning I catch him cleaning up the bottom. He is a little pistol, very cute!:p

[gunner]

I have a common pleco who I have had for a year now and is quite the character. He is 12 inches long now and is always on the side of the tank or on the ferret tube. My favorite catfish is my baby, Stitch. He is a walking catfish, has beautiful markings and is the biggest joker. He loves to touch the other fish with his feelers, and when they swim away, he chases them. I have been trying to attach a picture of him but my picture is apparently to big to transfer. Any suggestions on how to fix the size problem?

[redrf900]

My irridescent shark is way COOL....I used to like my clown loaches, but all they do is hide...If I want to see them I have to break out the night vision camera. :-(

[dirtysanchez582]

personally i think you can beat a giraffe there so friendly, as they grown they go from small nervous things that hide most of the time then a few months down the line this 8-10" things starts comming out going look at me hoovering the bottomof everything they got big lips and soon come up the top looking at you for food and the get so excited at feeding time its hilarius

[Swbuda]

we got them, now they are about 16 inches:D They are very active in the evening..Or when I tap on the top of the tank to let them know I am going to drop in some "vittles"..Sometimes they get so roudy they can make water slop out of the tank (180 gallons).... They keep company with two ten inch Oscars, and two Clown Knives, that are almost as big as they are. It's quite a tank..;)

[baxter]

I've got a striped raphael that mostly hides in a castle all the time. I'll go for a few weeks without seeing him and then I start to get worried, so I take the castle out of the water to find him. And there he is, fat and happy. He's pretty cool when he's out, he'll let me hold him and he just sits in my hand for a while, then he swims off and goes back in the castle.

I've got another tank with some sort of blind (as in no eyes) pleco that's pinkish white in color, a large upside down cat and a small spotted raphael. They're all fun to watch. The upside down likes to hang out in the corner by the filter, until you walk in the room, then he zooms to the back of a rock. The spotted raphael stays under a rock outcropping until feeding time, and then he ventures out and eats everything he can find. He's got a fat little round belly. The pleco hangs out on the back glass until I drop a pellet in there and then he noses around until he finds it.

Cats are some of my favorite fish, they do have lots of personality!

[sumoschro]

i have a small school of panda coried that are very active all the time...every time i look in there they are all scooting around the tank in their little group picking up scraps or nibbling at my pleco's spirulina tablet. Its very entertaining :D

[Clownloach458]

id have to say corys also. they are very "hyper" , and entergetic fish. mine also have alot of character :). and they are great cleaners too

[GoLdFiSh_GrL]

In my opinion, from my 3 Cory cats, the Albino is the funniest. He lays around all day but when he decides to swim around, there's no one that doesn't laugh. Same with my Elegant cory when I first got him... my Emerald-Green is too lazy... :p

[NJ Devils Fan]

I am starting to like my yo-yo loaches more and more everyday. I have noticed over the last few days that when I put my hand in the tank, the adult(who I call papa loach) and the two juvies come over and while everyone else hides. The adult sometimes touches my fingers, it's very cool. I also like it when they play in the return flow from the canister filter. They go infront of one of the holes and get blown back, then do they do it again and again. Can't get enough.