Aussie catfish and Silver Dollars

[galaga-girl]

Today I travelled over 2 hours to go to a new Aquarium store that opened up. It was quite good, with a lot of fish to choose from, most of the tanks were very clean but the floor was very wet and the service was terrible! When I told him I was ready to get some fish he finished typing on his PC (took around 1 min) then showed me where the nets were and told me to tell him when I'd caught the one I wanted!!!!!!!!

The fish (for here) were reasonably priced so I got a Yellow-finned eeltail catfish which is an Australian native and also a silver dollar which I've never kept before.

I have now realised that they like to be with groups of other fish, I tured the lights off in the tank because the SD was looking very scared and almost seems to be gasping for air?? weird. the Catfish has setteled in well. I have a community tank (190L) and will get a bigger one when the catfish reaches adulthood (around 40cm!!)

Has anyone kept either of these fishes before? Any advice?? I've also read that my planted tank could loose a few with the SD?

[Gambusia]

Sounds neat!

I don't think too many Australian natives are available in the US and Canada.

[04cobratorchred]

I think i would like that better if the fish store here let me get my own fish. But yes SD will eat the plants in your tank, Which will lead to killing them down the road. I havn't found anything that really stops them from doing it yet, but maybe someone else on here knows.

[windeindoiel]

Yes silver dollars like to have more of their own kind. And yes they like to nibble plants. I try to give them this frozen food that contains veggies to try to supplement them. They still nibble the plants though, although they haven't killed any yet. So far they haven't eaten any to the point where the plant will die, the leaves usually get a chance to come back a bit before they decide to sample it again.

[galaga-girl]

Thanks for the replies, the Silver Dollar has setteled in nicely and so far hasn't even nibbled on a single plant! I am really loving him, I've noticed he hangs out with my Electric Yellow quite a bit - I think they are friends :)

It is a shame that you guys in the US can't get Aussie natives, because my Eel tailed Catfish is the most amazing fish i've ever seen!! I love him to bits and is by far my most fav fish in the tank and I didn't think I could love a fish more than my big Male Angel.

[Gambusia]

I'm not sure if there legal to import.

Maybe they are but nobody imports them.

I have heard of people keeping Australian lungfishes on occasion.

[Raskolnikov]

A LFS near me had some fish labelled as "Knife Catfish" a while ago which looked very much like Eel Tailed Catfish, though I can't be certain.



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