rm
Passport
- Family
- Bristlenose Catfish
- Grows to
- 9.5 cm (3.7")
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- CareSuggested
- Intermediate
- Swims
- On the bottom
- Keep
- In a group of 6 or more
- Water
- 25–28 °C (77–82 °F)
PeruBrazil
Care requirements
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On record for Whiptail Catfish: adult size, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
Not on record for Whiptail Catfish: lifespan.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 53 L / 14.0 US gal
- pH 6–8
- Hardness 5–20 dGH
- Diet omnivore
- Tank length 45 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Whiptails are shaped like a twig and behave like one. The body tapers into a long filament of a tail, the colouring is mottled brown and grey, and a resting whiptail lying along a branch is genuinely hard to pick out even when you know where it is.
They're among the most peaceful catfish in the hobby. Nothing about them is territorial outside spawning, they never bother a tank mate, and the flip side is that they're easily bullied and easily out-competed for food.
They're also more approachable than their appearance suggests. A settled group is out in the open on wood and glass through the day rather than hiding, which is not something you can say about most loricariids.
Tank setup
Give your whiptails sand and leaf litter. They came from sandy stretches scattered with fallen leaves, and that arrangement suits them exactly — a layer of dried oak or beech over fine sand is both authentic and easy.
Add caves. Lengths of narrow pipe, hollow wood or rock crevices give them somewhere to sit and, if you're lucky, somewhere to spawn.
Provide branches to rest on. They perch lengthways along wood and the camouflage only works if there's something to be camouflaged against.
Keep the light low. They're not nocturnal but they dislike glare, and a shaded tank gets them out where you can see them.
Choose calm tank mates. Anything vigorous will reduce a whiptail to a permanently hidden fish that slowly starves.
Feeding
Whiptails graze aufwuchs — the algae and micro-organism film on submerged surfaces — and take small crustaceans in the wild. In a tank they're straightforwardly omnivorous.
Feed sinking foods, vegetable matter and protein together. Blanched spinach, courgette and kale, sinking wafers, and frozen bloodworm or daphnia all get taken.
Make sure the food reaches them. This is the practical problem with the species: they're slow, retiring feeders and quicker fish clear the tank before they arrive. An evening feed, once the lights are down, is the reliable way in.
Avoid: assuming they'll live on algae alone. They need real feeding.
Filtration and flow
Fairly gentle flow suits them. Keep the filtration efficient but the water movement soft.
Filter well and keep the water clean. They're sensitive to poor conditions, and the long tail filament is often the first thing to show damage.
Good oxygenation matters. They're not a low-oxygen fish despite the still-water look of their habitat.
With plants
Whiptails are entirely safe with plants and won't damage them. They graze the film off leaves rather than the leaves themselves.
Broad-leaved plants make good resting perches, so anubias and java fern on wood earn their place twice over.
A planted tank suits them as well as a leaf-litter biotope does, provided the lighting isn't harsh.
Health
They're reasonably hardy in a mature tank and poor in a new one. Wait for the tank to settle before adding them.
The tail filament is the vulnerable part. It damages against sharp decor, gets nipped by unsuitable tank mates, and regrows slowly.
Watch the belly. A whiptail with a sunken, hollow abdomen is being out-competed for food, and it's the most common way these fish are lost.
Breeding
They breed readily in a well-run tank, and the fry are the difficult part. Start with a group of juveniles and let them pair off.
The male picks a cave, cleans it, and a female lays inside; from that point he does everything — guarding the eggs and fanning them — while she takes no further part. Move the tube or the other fish once eggs are laid.
Fry starve easily and need constant access to soft vegetable matter. Kale or spinach softened by soaking rather than blanching keeps more of the nutrients, and algae grown on rocks under a bright light is ideal. They'll take microworm and baby brine shrimp alongside.
Tank mates
Avoid5
- Least Killifish Whiptail Catfish grows to 10 cm against Least Killifish at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Scarlet Badis Whiptail Catfish grows to 10 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Common Goldfish Common Goldfish is not safe with Whiptail Catfish: bristlenose catfish and common goldfish are a bad pairing.
- Fancy Goldfish Fancy Goldfish is not safe with Whiptail Catfish: bristlenose catfish and fancy goldfish are a bad pairing.
- Oscar Oscar is not safe with Whiptail Catfish: bristlenose catfish and oscars and other large cichlids are a bad pairing.
Only with care21
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Whiptail Catfish is peaceful.
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid is aggressive and Whiptail Catfish is peaceful.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid is aggressive and Whiptail Catfish is peaceful.
- Assassin Snail Whiptail Catfish is a risk to Assassin Snail: bristlenose catfish and snails are a pairing to watch.
- Bladder Snail Whiptail Catfish is a risk to Bladder Snail: bristlenose catfish and snails are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 80 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 2 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.