# New Bullhead catfish will not swim around or eat



## roushrcing26 (Mar 14, 2011)

Hi everybody i just bought a spotted bullhead catfish. I have had him for two days now in a 20 gallon with cichlids and rainbow sharks. his whiskers on his nose are getting shorter and he will not swim around or eat anything what do you think this could be? it has a 30 gallon filter and a bubble wall with plenty of air. also plenty of live plants please help?! go to youtube and type in cichlids bullhead catfish angelfish and puffers the first video should be my tank its 3 min 9 seconds Thank you!


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## M1ster Stanl3y (Dec 10, 2010)

id hafta say he is getting picked on, did you drip acclimate him? are you planning on moving him to a bigger tank?


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## M1ster Stanl3y (Dec 10, 2010)

ok after watching your video. YouTube - Freshwater tanks Cichlids, Bullhead Catfish, RB Shark, Puffer, And Angelfish

i'm not a fish specialist or anything but i noticed a few things.

For a 20g thats a lot of fish. How often do you do a water change?

Do you test for amoninia, nitrite, nitrate? if so whats their levels?

The catfish will be more active at night w/ lights off then the day. 

Your suckerfish is a Pleco, dunno what kind but if its a common pleco it can get over 18". 

What are you trying to feed your catfish? 

Test your water, see what your numbers are and start there. The catfish full grown will weight about 2lbs so its not gonna be huge but it will grow large.


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## roushrcing26 (Mar 14, 2011)

I am going to get test strips as soon as I have the extra money.

Yes I plan on getting bigger within a year.

I do water changes daily or every other day tank is at 80 degrees 

I have tried to feed him ghost shrimp, sinking shrimp pelets and flake food.

Maybe he's eating at night?


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## M1ster Stanl3y (Dec 10, 2010)

ditch the test strips spend the $30 on a API master liquid test kit. More precise. 
water changes are gonna be important for your tank. 
He might be eating at night but i would watch for the cichlids maybe harassing him. Watch craigslist if he is getting harassed you may be able to find a cheap 20g for him alone. I had one in my local craiglist for $5 but it was gone w/in hours of posting.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

Too many fish, inadequate water flow, bad water conditions. I also will warn you, once/IF it grows, you can kiss those other fish goodbye.
That size bullhead needs a 40B to ITSELF to grow correctly. run a canister filter and do 50% pwc's every other day, and add a powerhead to create a current. That tank is all wrong for a native fish.


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## roushrcing26 (Mar 14, 2011)

A bubble wall isn't enough air flow? Should I get a splitter and plug in the castle into the air again? Should I. Take some cichlids back? What beside a powerhead would u recomend to make this tank sufficent for him?


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## roushrcing26 (Mar 14, 2011)

The water is crysta? Clear now It was dirty bc I had just done a water change


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

all a PWC does is dillute. Ive lost $300 dollar fish in crystal clear conditions before, its what you cant see that will get em.

a bubble wand is no flow at all, bullheads are found near moving water, either in rivers, creeks or at the mouths of creeks on lakes. Their bodies are designed for moving bodies of water.

you need a bigger tank, bigger filter and a powerhead down low or even the filter return mounted low in the tank, creeks and rivers currents are on the bottom not top. all a bubble wand does is pressurize the air you are breathing anyways and the oxygen content is minimal.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

The tank is also full of fish from different lakes on the cichlids. Hate to say it but the tank even if it was big enough will head for disaster because you will end up with compatability problems with the fish that the catfish don't eat.


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## M1ster Stanl3y (Dec 10, 2010)

As for the cichlids with the stores selling the"assorted" its hard for the average person to know the lake types . Def need a tank for just the catfish tho. He will thank you


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Well that may be true, but he does have a tang in there that I have never seen at petsmarts or petco. Lfs will carry them and can get expensive. So I doubt that came out of a tank of assorted cichlids.


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## roushrcing26 (Mar 14, 2011)

I took him back to the store today and got a smaller channel cat and a few more real plants no more fake ones. Also i took the blue striped cichlid back all the other cichlids get along fine for now lol. what kind of fish random fish that you never see would be good with my tank?


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

Channel Cat? Can you confirm this? You may have just made things worse. Channels are monsters.

Also, what is the temp in the tank? These types of cats reqire cooler temps that chiclids.

And...tank is also too "busy" for these types of cats as well.


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## roushrcing26 (Mar 14, 2011)

Yes i know its a channel I go fishing for them all the time. hes only like two inches long ill have a bigger tank by the time he outgrows this one the tank is at 78 degrees. I think it should be ok


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

ooooooooooook.

Just please be advised on your current tank (and this isn't a dig on you): Too Small - Too Busy - Too Hot


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

yeah by that time all your other fish will be gone, channel catfish are predators not scavengers.


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## roushrcing26 (Mar 14, 2011)

no its cool i need the help what do yall suggest i do i really like the idea of the catfish im an avid fisherman. should i get rid of the cichlids or keep maybe one or two? im thinking maybe switching to a native tank


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## roushrcing26 (Mar 14, 2011)

oh and what temp would be good for the catfish is there a medium for both of them?


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

In the tanks at my old work we used to keep the channel cats at 58 degrees and they were most active at these temps.

If you have a channel cat in there, get rid of everything else. Is it a true channel cat? Ive caught em at the smallest 5" long and they look like a dwarf channel cat. 

Im not trying to knock you at all but the needs of a north american native is ALOT different then every other fish in that tank. I wont keep natives in anything less then 500 gallons as they need the room to swim and grow. I do miss my 9k gallon tanks at my old work though.


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## Angiee (Jul 11, 2012)

It may be because of light,catfish don't like light. And they have a period of getting used to new aquarium. It may take a week.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

I've had bullheads before but I catch them when 1.25" to 1.75" and release then at about
3". I keep 3-4 at a time so they feel their in a school. They will hardly come out when the light is on (I feed shrimp pellets and/or frozen bloodworms) except when I put food in the tank. Then they act very nervous and scurry about in almost a frenzy. I sometimes watch them at night by placing a led flashlight shining across and behind the back of the tank
so it does not shine directly into the tank. They act quite differently then, but still
a bit nervous.
I occasionally will make the effort to "collect" a school of babies in spring. Small as they are I couldn't say if channel or blue but I use a minnow net/w fine mesh.
They mostly are about .25"-.625" and when I drop food into the ball of them
which swims around the tank they collectively follow it down. I release 3-7 a week till there are about three left and then at 3" let them go.


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## dirtydutch4x (Jun 16, 2009)

I am one of those people that would normally say that any fish that you really like could possibly find a way to keep them together peacefully, trial and error for a good combo. However in this case I completely agree with the feedback you have gotten. So many bad scenario's going on here. Catfish will or might eat your other fish, africans will get aggressive and destroy all others until its a complete mess and dead fish all over, you have a male and female convict which will absolutely breed(female in the video is ready) and they will go on a rampage and destroy every thing around them, bio load is huge in this tank all it will take is skipping a WC and you lose everything. I have always mixed fish from regions but this size tank with these fish(even at small sizes) is too much.


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