goggles2

ive had mine for about 3 monthes now and there are quite a cool fish

first thing that catches your eyes is the spot pattern its quite a pretty fish also they look very prehistoric lots of armor plates and SPINES (dont catch with a net ever please or your poor fish will be hopelessy entangled)

its a very very shy fish and they definately need somewhere to hide mine seems to prefer real driftwood he wouldnt even go near his little fake deco cave they camoflauge VERY well against driftwood

hes got a few other strange behaviors as well mine seems to be very senstive to the weather almost like a loach he goes absolutely nuts before a big weather change swimming frantically all over the tank and splashing around at the surface (woke me up at 3 am a couple times thinking i had to save an escapee) when they sleep they change color as well mine turns almost white on the belly and very dark almost black on top when he sleeps but his color evens right out when he becomes active again

as i said before very shy during the day but at night there very active and even with the lights on at night mine is not shy at all

its a carnivore/omnivore and they mainly scavenege or feed on mollusks ( or so ive heard but my snail has yet to be touched by it) sinking carnivore pellets are good food but mine seems to love algae wafers too

seems to be a fairly peaceful fish though im not sure how well they get along with other bottom feeders at one point i had i pleco with him and they had a couple scraps with pleco ending up pretty hurt

in terms of size seems to grow fairly slow with the max size being around 5-7"

all in all a very cool fish thats easy to take care of and fun to watch

Lucy

I love it! Very Unique. Thanks for posting the picture.

For the algea, try cutting down the amount of time you leave the lights on.

goggles2

not the greatest pic but it shows of those mean spines really good

Ghostfish

I keep looking at these in my LFS. I am tempted to get one every time.

capekate

Hi Ben,
I like your spotted Raphael cat. I have the striped raphael catfish. These are great peaceful guys and your right, they do love the driftwood! My guy burrows under the driftwood in a sort of gully it has made. Its his home for the day and only comes out at night. I love the stripes on my guy.. but I really like the spots on your guy! It almost looks like a snowflake pleco with the spots.
I have not found the spotted raphael at any of my LFS but they have plenty of the striped. Oh well... maybe some day I will find the spotted.
Good luck with yours...