What are some good catfish for my 15 gal?

Hello everyone;

I want to get some catfish for my tank. I was set on getting a bumblebee catfish, but they only come out at night apparently and id like to see my fish!

I was wondering if there are any good catfishes or bottom feeders for my tank. However, I don't want them to be corys. They are a kind of last resort for bottom feeders.
My current stocking is:
4 guppies
1 honey gourami.

ill be getting 1 or 2 more guppies if I can find a really good looking one.

thanks for helpingg

 

How about otocinclus?

 

Hmmm maybe. Arent they supposed to go into a more mature tank? Mines been set up for a few weeks now with fish in, but it cycled for 3 weeks before that.

thankyou for the suggestion .

can anyone think of an unusual catfish that can go in my tank? It can be a sibgle or schooling one

 

Otos maybe, they like a very well established aquarium. Most bottom feeders need a little larger tank.

 

Oh ok. This is kind of off topic but do you think a pea puffer would be ok in my tank? Or would it be too nippy? I'm looking pretty much for a 'single' catfish and not a schooling one. Or another 'single' fish that could go in with my fish and I could get an army of shrimp as bottom feeders

 

Your gourami would probably eat any shrimp, but you could create a lot of hiding spaces if you chose. I don't think pea puffers are recommended for community tanks.

 

a nice, small catfish that will show in the day time? ....... 15 gallons is on the small side, a bristlenose plec won't grow too large but it also likes a more mature tank with some algae to feed from and some kind of wood to graze on and aid its digestion.

 

Dwarf puffers are best kept in a species only tank, they may be small but they can be very feisty & do a lot of damage very quickly.

 

I thought dwarf puffers preferred brackish water?

 

My tank has a log ornament in which shrimp can hide in and the only fish that goes in there is the gourami but he comes out straight away be ause its dark in there lol.

 

Indian dwarf puffers are freshwater

 

So there isn't really a good catfish for my tank then?

 

If I were you I wouldn't go for a catfish. I'd go with a few different colored nerite snails. Neat little things that go anywhere and everywhere.

 

Nerite snails look cool!

I'm thinking about taking my honey gourami back to my lfs because the guppies are a bit more boystrous than him, if you know what I mean.

what other fish can I get now? Like a centerpiece fish or something else

 

You could up your guppies instead of a centerpiece. Guppies are kind of spastic by nature, lol. Very beautiful though.

Maybe a single ram? They like the bottom to mid levels. They can be very timid like the HG though.

 

I wanted to breed them but that would mean getting 8 females and id probably be overstocked because of the. 1:2 male to female ratio

 

Get a redtail catfish or a shovelnose... JK no but really if you are considering pleco's you should pick up a [h=2]Parotocinclus sp. 3 or a trio of kuhlI loach if you can fit them... [/h]

 

aquatruncatis have you ever had those plecos? They look cool. Can u tell me how to care for them

 

Just a quick update.

ive decided to get a bumblebee catfish again. Thanks for all of the great suggestions though!

 

I'm not sure a bumble bee catfish is right for a 15 gallon tank. Ive never kept one but I suspect he'd need 20 gallons or larger.

 

you might try dwar or pygme cory cats

 

Some catfish like eclipse will prey on pregnat female guppies I know from experience

 

@ have you ever had those plecos? They look cool. Can u tell me how to care for them

I have never cared for them but from what I've been researching it says that they are hard to keep and they have never been bred in captivity. But if you are up for the challenge, by all means go for it.

 

Also if you go with a bumblebee your guppies may fade into memory. (according to its profile it may eat small slender fish)

 

Ok, no bumblebee catfish then! I guess if I want a bottom feeder ill have to get some pygmy or habrosus cories, or some shrimp and then boost up my guppy group.

 

I'd go with habrosus as they tend to stay on the bottom more than pygmies which spend a lot of their time in the middle levels

 

What are the dimensions of your tank? It may be too tall for pygmy corys.

 

I hope you can find habrosus! They're very cute! All we could get in our area without ordering online were pygmies. Pygmies are very animated little things. Mine spend most of the time on the bottom but then I'll see them hanging out with the skirt tetras in the middle like it's nothing, haha.

 

Ive asked my lfs to order some in for me, but if they can't then I can go to one that is an hour away