Fooled twice by banjo cat

**KingFisher** · 08-17-2008, 07:25 PM

Yesterday I went to my lfs and couldn't resist an awesome looking 2.5 inch banjo cat. After acclimatizing him to the tank water, I netted him from the bag and released him into the tank. To my dismay, he sank to the bottom and sat there motionless. I was bummed that he didn't even survive the five minute trip home from the store. Just as I was going to take him back out of the tank, he dove into the sand lightning quick. I was very relieved.
Today when I turned the tank lights on, the cat was once again laying there motionless on the bottom. I observed him for a while and couldn't even see any sign of gill movement. I grabbed my tongs and reached in and started to pick up the poor dead fish, when all of a sudden he scurried back into the sand. I can tell this guy is going to give me a lot of worries.LOL

**OscarFan** · 08-17-2008, 07:27 PM

Nice lol. Ive always wanted one of them.

**angelcakes** · 08-17-2008, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by KingFisher

Yesterday I went to my lfs and couldn't resist an awesome looking 2.5 inch banjo cat. After acclimatizing him to the tank water, I netted him from the bag and released him into the tank. To my dismay, he sank to the bottom and sat there motionless. I was bummed that he didn't even survive the five minute trip home from the store. Just as I was going to take him back out of the tank, he dove into the sand lightning quick. I was very relieved.
Today when I turned the tank lights on, the cat was once again laying there motionless on the bottom. I observed him for a while and couldn't even see any sign of gill movement. I grabbed my tongs and reached in and started to pick up the poor dead fish, when all of a sudden he scurried back into the sand. I can tell this guy is going to give me a lot of worries.LOL

banjo catfish are genually like this.......you think there dead until you poke them.......keep an eye on him but im sure this is normal behaviour

**Treerat** · 08-17-2008, 10:43 PM

LOL... my banjo cats are all like that. I rarely catch them out and about in the day time, but when the lights go out and the moonlight comes on, they stir around in the sand like little gophers. When i clean my gravel i find them up to 1/4 inch down in the sand or deep in the caves (tubes) and wood pile.

**KingFisher** · 08-21-2008, 04:12 PM

Last night I had a rare treat. After getting in late, I realized I had left all the tank lights on. The banjo cat was lying on top of the sand, out in the open. I dropped a few shrimp pellets in the tank and he immediately zeroed in on them one by one. I then dropped in an algae wafer for the pleco, and he went over and was nipping at that. The pleco came out of his hiding spot and he and the banjo cat were sharing the wafer. I was amazed by all this activity from the banjo with all the lights still on. Perhaps his "internal clock" regulated his activity more than the amount of light did.

**Dave66** · 08-21-2008, 08:18 PM

King,
The banjo cats are designed to blend in with the leaf litter, where they eat aquatic worms, insect larvae and small crustaceans. They frequent the same streams dwarf cichlids like Apistos and Rams live in, and many, many difference species of tetra school in those waters. Banjo cats are very, very nocturnal, and stay still like that during the day, and forage for foods at night.
If you want to make him happy, start dropping in frozen bloodworms, mosquito larvae and mysis shrimp on alternate nights, and the shrimp pellets and the like other nights.

Dave

**gem** · 08-24-2008, 03:48 PM

Ha ha....the one I had, you could grab by the tail turn him upside down...he wouldn't move. Let him go and he just floats to the bottom. Then after a second he bolts off. Thankfully I knew this about the species when I bought it or I think I would have thrown him out right off the bat thinking he was dead.