Cat Fish?

[emily]

Hello all,

Just wondering if Sucking Cat-Fish are all right to put in the tank with Axies, just to keep the tank clean.

Any help is appreciated,
~Emily.

 

[alex]

no. the axolotl will try eat it.

 

[stipe]

But if the axie scant eat them, are they gud?, they wont eat the gills rigth?

 

[alex]

what do u mean by if the axie cant eat them?. do u mean if they are too big?. the axie will still most likely take nips at the cat fish.

 

[sin]

i've got two algae eating catfish. I had them in with my axies, both had very different temprements. The bigger, dominant one used to chase the little one around and one day he started sucking on one of my axies and i took him out of the tank. My little one, Simon, is very docile, stays well away from the axies, keeps the tank clean and never causes any hassles. There's been some horror stories about them on the forum so it generally isn't recommended that you mix species.

My boyfriend had one in his tank with his 2 axies, which got on well until he started getting a taste for the axie pellets he feeds. One day he came home to a VERY large poo and no catfish in the tank though.

 

[heather]

I have three sucker fish(plecostamus, i dont know how to spell)with my axies. They do great keeping the glass clean and with the type of mouth they have, I cant see how they could "nip" at my axies...they cant even close their mouths! the fishies are all too big to become easy snacks, unless my axies are hiding a set of cuttlery in the tank somewhere....

(Message edited by salamander_maniac on January 09, 2006)

 

[jennifer]

Here are a couple of quoted incidents from:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml

I put an algae eater in the tank with my Axolotls. For a while everything was fine; however, last night I discovered small spots where the algae eater had 'sucked' on my Axolotls' tail! The skin is off and I am very worried.
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/8/37244.html?1118030284

health warning
Posted by Michael on June 22, 2001 at 17:56:36:

Please pass on the info that any algae eaters or others of the catfish family have spines in the fins that are deadly to anthing eating them. They lodge in the throat, piercing and ripping. I lost a dear little 10 year old Fire Belly Newt (Wayne) when I didn't know of the spines and added a small algae eater to the aquarium. Wayne died 2 days later with the fish impaling his throat. The vet could not help him. Please pass the word to pet stores and others.

 

[jojo]

oh my goodness, thats terrible Jennifer!!! I hope it heals and all is good!!!

Sin sister - after reading the above cut and pasted post from "Michael" AND checking out the first link Jen has there, i wouldnt take ANY risks.

 

[theresa]

Ditto... why take the risk ? Just takes a little more time for tank maintenance.

 

[dane]

I would not put any sick fish with my axie and i heard big fish can go in people say you can have big goldfish in the tank.

 

[jennifer]

Some people have kept axolotls with goldfish successfully. But it's one of those things where it has to be done right, or it could be a disaster (dead animals). To do it right, one would need to have a really big aquarium with excellent filtration and lots of hiding places, plus a backup tank in case anything went wrong - not many people have those luxuries.

This forum is read by a lot of people, so we have to be careful not to say "this or that is OK", unless it's truly OK. As a general rule, I wouldn't recommend axies with goldfish, mainly due to the risk of water quality problems and general stress on the axies.

 

[mark]

Keeping goldfish can be very problematic. Goldfish, due to the fact that they don't have a small intestine like most fish, tend to create more waste. This means that you need to clean more frequently, which most people don't. The only fish I have ever kept in with my axolotls are the stray guppies I've put in for feeding purposes.