My newest addition

Meet my newest addition, a very adorable Planiloricaria cryptodon (any Richmonders take note - Keith has several more of these at Azalea - not cheap, though... ). This is a whiptail catfish, and the "whip" extension on his tail is actually longer than his body. He waves it up and down for no apparent reason, lol. He also has a filamentous extension on his dorsal fin. He is a great eater, though you have to put food right in front of him. He is not shy and never hides, even when you come at him with feeding forceps, lol, and he spends all of his time at the front of the tank where he can be admired. Awesome cat!



Close up:



This is him buried in the sand when he is not eating or rooting around (sand is the preferred substrate for this type of catfish):

 

It is eating mainly Hikari sinking wafers for bottomfeeders, but it also likes algae wafers and it will eat the NLS sinking pellets I feed to the other fish, along with blood worms and brine shrimp (both frozen) if I turn off all pumps and filter, since otherwise they blow by him in the current and he can't get a chance at them. He spends much of the day sifting through the sand and moving around the open spaces in search of food.

I have figured out where in the tank to drop the Hikari wafers, and he literally gets ready when he sees me lift the canopy lid by shaking himself, almost like he is "loosening up" for his attempt to catch the wafer as it falls. I drop the wafer, calculating for the flow of the filter and the powerhead, and I can get it to land pretty much right in front of him, then bounce, and "Yessss!" He snags the wafer and eats it whole. I love it! Great fun.


Am I a geek?

 

Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.

He continues to be a very interesting inhabitant of this tank, and he's got a lot of personality. As long as he has sand to bury in, and food placed relatively nearby, he's happy. He current does not have any tankmates that will eat the food before he gets to it, and evidently this is pretty important for this unassuming, good-natured catfish. I was not able to get a picture of it, but I caught my female Ancistrus (bristlenose cat) perched on his face briefly! He did nothing about it. As long as the BNs do not actually rasp on his face, I'm cool with them hanging out, lol. The BNs are very interested in him, and I see much more of them now that he is in the tank. I see a LOT less of my school of Corydoras trilineatus, however. They are steering very clear of this little fellow.

He ought to get a lot bigger though, as he is a juvenile, for sure.

I highly recommend this fish for sand tanks with open areas and no particularly aggressive, boisterous tankmates that might outcompete these guys for food. Even large, fast tetras might be too much for these cats.