Catfish are the bottom-feeders

Walking Catfish (Clarias batrachus) 

There are very many fish known as catfish in the world and most of these have whisker-like barbels that have earned them the name. Lots of the species found in the tropics are popular with tropical fish enthusiasts who like to keep them in their aquariums as pets. There are some really weird species of catfish such as the Walking Catfish and the Glass Catfish, and yes, the former travels over the ground and the latter you can see through!

I know that when I was younger and had a whole lot ot tropical fish tanks that I had a growing collection of various types of catfish. They fascinated me because of their unusual appearances and behaviour. I never saw any types of catfish as ugly though I am sure many people might view them that way.  On the contrary I find their whiskery faces rather cute.  I also really enjoy watching catfish rummaging around looking for food, food that other fish have missed out on.

Many people think that catfish will keep a tank clean and that they live on the dirt that accumulates but this is not true. Catfish need proper food just like other species of tropical fish. It is just that many types of catfish are adapted to search in the bottom substrate for food that may have escaped into it. This is where their barbels come in handy. Some types of catfish have sucker mouths that are used for grazing on the algae that grows on rocks, plants and the glass sides of an aquarium. 

Catfish are the bottom-feeders

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.

Live food for tropical fish to get them in good condition for breeding

Culex mosquito larva

When I was a boy I used to love to keep tropical fish and quickly learned that if I wanted to keep them healthy and to breed them then live foods were essential. Bloodworms, tubifex, mosquito larvae and daphnia were all excellent foods but my favourite was the humble earthworm and the fish liked them a lot too! I used to spend a lot of time finding food for my pets.

Water butts were a great source of mosquito larvae and blood-worms. Tubifex I collected in the black stinking mud of the River Taff and daphnia could be netted in local ponds as well as being quite easy to breed in containers of stagnant water.  Earthworms, of course, came out of the ground.

There were techniques you had to learn or come up with in order to get enough of the live foods your fish needed. I remember leaving large dollops of mud containing tubifex worms to dry out. The worms would form into large masses underneath in an effort to conserve moisture and were easy to pick out and then to swill under clean water before feeding to my fish.

Mosquito larvae present a challenge because they will quickly swim down into the depths of any water they are in if they are disturbed. The trick is not to disturb them and to quickly skim or net the wrigglers from the surface.  Bloodworms can be harvested like Tubifex or can be carefully picked out of the tubes of mud and muck they make.  Daphnia can be netted using a fine gauze mesh in the net you are using.

Newly-hatched brine shrimp nauplii were the best food for tropical fish fry. 

Live food for tropical fish to get them in good condition for breeding

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.