Upside down catfish tankmates

by **friend_of_fish** » Sun Mar 26, 2017 9:13 pm

I want a top dwelling fish and these guys seem perfect - they're so cool looking! Only my problem is I'm not positive they would be okay with the other fish.

I'm guessing anything small would be eaten? How small is too small? Catfish usually have big mouths - are these guys any different?

by **xxluckxx** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 4:07 pm

They stay small so I think as long as you don't put tiny fish in it should be fine. In terms of tiny I'm thinking along the lines of guppies, neons, tiny rasboras, etc. And obviously any fry they can catch will be eaten.

by **friend_of_fish** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:25 pm

Ok cool! I'm also interested in african butterfly fish, do you think they could share the top region of the tank with the catfish?

by **tetrafan** » Sun Apr 02, 2017 8:32 pm

Well you should probably have at least 3 of the catfish since they're schooling fish and do much better in groups. Unless you have a big tank you probably don't have the space for the catfish and african butterfly so best stick to one or the other IMO!

by **kate_kuhli** » Sun Apr 02, 2017 10:18 pm

There's actually a lot of fish from the Synodontis (sp?) family called upside down catfish. Which species were you thinking of?

S. nigriventris only gets to 3 or 4 inches and like Tetrafan said they are schooling fish and will feel much more secure if you have a group of them. I'd personally get 5-6 which is the minimum number for any schooling fish.

There are other species which get larger and aren't schooling. However, these will eat small fish. For a community tank with small fish it's best if you get S. nigriventris.

by **friend_of_fish** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:39 am

Okay it does sound like it would be best to stay with the idea of getting the cats and to do a group of them. I think I should be able to have 5 in this tank.

I didn't realize they were schooling fish, I think I'd been reading about the larger species that aren't? I guess they're sort of like cory catfish now that I think about them being schooling fish, except where cories are bottom dwelling these are top dwelling!

Upside down catfish tankmates

6 posts