# Upsidedown catfish



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Rescued this fish from a family who no longer wanted it. They said it had been passed around from family to family along with a clown pleco. 

Imo the fish had been poorly treated as they only got water changes infrequently and they were using chemicals to increase the hardness of the water to the point that the calcium had precipitated out and lay in a thick layer on the gravel. 
Anyway I adopted these guys about 3 years ago and after a few months they perked up, regained their colors and lived a decent life. Now I notice that the upside down cat is looking a bit peeky. Showing more white on its body as well as it seems a bit thin.

I add shrimp pellet or algae tabs to the tank when it is dark in the room hoping that it will get fed.

Snails always seem to be on the algae wafers, so I have greatly thinned my snail population hoping to stop the weight loss.
Am wondering if it would respond to floating food better. Info seems variable on the internet.
Of course it could be near the end of its life span as I imagine we would have no idea how old it was when originally purchased and I think it has had some terrible living conditions over the years.
Thanks


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## big b (Aug 17, 2014)

how big is it?that could give a hint about the age.


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## CoryDee (Aug 26, 2014)

A pic would help to see the white marks you describe.
They're really best kept in groups but as he's been in his own all this time he may not take to having others around, you could try him with some friends but have a back up plan if it doesn't work out.
Try feeding some live or frozen food such as bloodworm or brine shrimp, you could also try feeding veg such as zucchini.
Quite a lot of catfish are long lived but if you don't know how old he was when you got him that's not much help


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## Plecostomus (Jul 31, 2006)

I've got two upside-down catfish about 3-4 inches long and they enjoy shrimp pellets. They are just big enough to swallow the shrimp pellet in one bite.


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