#hyalobagrus flavus

[narelleart]

I just sat in front of the Borneo tank today and watched my H. flavus for awhile. They are such perfect, cute, tiny fish. I really love them. I don’t usually feel particularly relaxed looking at fish, but watching them poke around was very relaxing.

10/10, excellent fish. Would recommend to those willing to meet their needs.

(Might try taking some pictures of them and their tank later, if I do I'll be sure to post some here.)

[narelleart]

So my Hyalobagrus flavus came in with ich. This is the second time I’ve gotten a bad ich outbreak from that store - its the best one in my area and is otherwise basically perfect. I’m kind of annoyed that they don’t do anything on their end to keep this from happening. They aren’t selling visibly sick fish, but it doesn’t have to be visible to be in their system. I think I’ve gotten it eradicated though (yesterday marked the end of a two week treatment), I’ll be investigating today to make sure. (The H. flavus hide very well in the current set up, so I don’t see them all often or clearly enough to confirm that there is no longer any visible ich in the tank.) I know I lost one, hopefully that’s the only one. I’ll count when I check on everyone.

I also got in some gorgeous buces and a Homelomena that will be going into their tank. If they are definitely healthy and I can get everything together in time, I might try and get their tank set up for real next week. Still trying to source the crypts I want though - apparently the ones found in Borneo are very rare in the hobby.

I also plan to try and make steps towards finally getting the 150g up today. The sooner I get that going, the sooner the 55g will be free to turn into a hillstream set up for my Tachysurus trilineatus. Exciting stuff. I really love my job, but sometimes I wish I had a little more free time for my fish at home, I might be further than this by now. ^^;;

[narelleart]

So quick fish update.

I just recently got some Hyalobagrus flavus (#2 on my wishlist!). The plan was to eventually get them into a 55g or 75g and do the Catfish-Only tank I’ve been dreaming of, but I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. Realistically, the fewer and smaller the tanks I have to move (about 1 yr away), the easier that will be.

So they are in a 30g currently, which was originally going to just be a holding tank, but now I’m thinking I’ll just make it a species tank display. A Borneo biotope species tank. (Borneo is gorgeous, they have the best plants!)

I’m really excited about the idea, hopefully I manage to make it happen soon.

Right now I have 11 H. flavus and have requested that my LFS get in 9 more to bring them up to 20, if they’re still available. Then the tank will be planted with rare crypts and a bunch of buces and maybe some other cool plants, depending on what I can find for sale. Might have a bit of a riparium thing going on, we’ll see.

In other fish news, I am very seriously looking at the logistics of maybe making it to CatCon this year? Which is very exciting, I’d really love to go. There’s bound to be tons of cool catfish for sale, so if I make it we’ll see what I bring home. I doubt I’d be able to stand going and NOT bringing any fish back with me. Pipe dream is Nanobagrus, especially N. armatus, which could live with the H. flavus. (Same biotope even!) But they aren’t traded, and I’m sure plenty of other enthusiasts would be quick to pick them up before I got the chance if someone somehow got ahold of them. (Anyone that’s been around through my fish blogging days is probably sick of reading about my pining after N. armatus, but I can’t help it. They are the best, cutest little cats!)

[narelleart]

So today I got a 29g (oops) and as I was disinfecting and cleaning it, I was looking at it thinking “Most people would be fine putting a 6 inch fish in this.” And that thought really bothered me…

Most recommend a 30g as a minimum tank size for an Asian Bumblebee Catfish (the 6" fish I had in mind). Footprints aren’t often specified, so I feel like most would take this tank and think its fine for a fish of that size. But I am just struck by how incredibly small it is. I’m not sure I’d even be comfortable housing my T. trilineatus , fish that are 3", half that size, in a tank this little. My new tank is 30" x 12" x 19". That’s not half bad dimensions. But still so incredibly small.

It’s really making me think. I might up my recommended minimum sizes for other things as well - I used to say 20g long as a minimum for a community, but it really ought to be 30g I think. These tanks are all just so small…They’re not ponds, they’re not rivers. They are so, so small.