Cat Fish

[Melvin]

Hello all, and let me wish everyone a great summer!!!!! My question is this.....I have this cat fish in my 55 gallon tank....unfortunately, I don't know his type, but he is a good 7 inches long. I discovered this morning when I awoke, about 8 AM that he had one of my cory cats in his mouth. The only thing visible was the tail fin of this little cory. As I am writing this post, it is roughly 6 PM and the cat fish is still munching on this cory. The tail of the cory is in the same position as it was at 8 AM. Does it take this long for the cat fish to devour this poor little thing?????

[stevec]

corys have spines in their fins, the cory could be stuck in the larger fish's mouth.

[Melvin]

Thanks SteveC. I actually went to my LFS this morning and described my problem. He told me the exact thing that you said. LFS told me to either let nature take its course, and eventually the cory will dislodge, or I can catch this big catfish and bring it to the LFS and give him up. I did have small fish disappear in the night in prior occasions, so now I know who the culprit is. So my dilema is to let him stay, and let nature take its course, or bring him to the LFS. If I keep him, I just wont buy anymore small fish. I think I am going to just keep him, and see what happens. Thanks for your help Steve!!!!!!

[stevec]

my thinking is this if the fish is still stuck till now there is no way of knowing when the catfish will let go of the cory or if it can. imo it is better to be safe than sorry and see if you can catch the catfish and get the cory out because if the cory is stuck due to the spines on the fins i don't know if can be dislodged by itself. not only that if there is an injury the longer the cory is in the mouth the chances of infection may be greater. you could lose 2 fish in the end.

the catfish eats by swallowing so it could be stuck.

this is just my opinion, but good luck...catfish are big eaters and if a fish can fit in another one's mouth it usually becomes a meal.

[Melvin]

Thanks SteveC....... That is a good point you make concerning infection. I didn't think of that!!!! Well, I don't know what to do. As I said, I finally confirmed that this guy is a "felon" and was killing some of my small fish. I have to admit, that this is partly my fault, I shouldn't have had these small fish. I am fairly knew to this hobby, so I am learning ( the hard way). I am thinking of trying to cath him, but I am sure this will cause havoc in the tank, and probably stress the Sh*t out of this big cat. So maybe I'll just leave well enough alone. I am between a rock and a hard place!!!!! LOL.... I feel bad for the guy ( catfish) even though he is a "felon". As I said... that is partly my fault... Jesus...what stress I am having with this!!!!!!

[Melvin]

Hi SteveC, Thank you for taking the time and giving me some insiight on this problem. I am happy to report this morning, that the catfish is back to his normal self, it appears that there is no more obstruction in his mouth. I threw down a couple of Algae Wafers, and he was going at it, as he used to do!!!!! Hopefully, he learned his lesson regarding cory cats....that was a 4 day ordeal for him. But unfurtunately, I don't think he learned from his mistake!!!! LOL

[stevec]

that is good news! some fish are kinda stupid like that, they don't learn till theyre dead.

the funny thing is that everyone learns from experience no matter how much stuff other people post online regarding their past experiences for some reason everyone likes to see for themselves, including myself...

if there is 1 piece of advice i can offer is that you can ask 10 people the same question and get 10 different answers so there are no givens in this hobby but you should always do your homework or as much research as you can, pick a solution and try it out. otherwise you start selling aquarium stuff on craigslist.

good luck with everything