Readers Respond: Have you kept a Upside Down Catfish?

Responses: 72

By Shirlie Sharpe, About.com Guide

I got one a few days ago and I thought it was dead, it just never swims. But I realized it comes out in the darkness. Turn off all the lights and it will swim, make sure the place is dark. It will swim. Cool fish. It gets lonely so please get 2 :) happy fishkeaping
—Guest Hey

I've had an upside down catfish for 4 years. It is a good community fish, but will occasionally get in the face of fish that are food hogs, like Parrot Cihlids. It has never harmed another fish. It does swim upside down and on its head a lot. I current have it with two small Flowerhorns who evicted it from behind the best hiding rock, but it is otherwise still OK. It did not fight back when the Flowerhorns got on each side of it and moved it out of the hiding area, but there was no biting. It eats everything from baby goldfish to blood worms to cichlid pellets
—Guest Dr. Robert Price

I've had my upside down cat for a little over 5 years now. I bought her when she was about 3/4 of an inch. First she was in a 10 gallon tank with a betta, two harlequin rasboras, some tetras, and a tiny julii cat. She just hid most of the time, except when fed. Now I have a 50 gallon tank with a good sized polyterus senegalus, mosquito fish, a dojo loach, bala sharks, a red finned shark, a gourami, two paradise fish, the same little julii cat, a peppered cat, platys, goldfish and a giant danio. I've never seen the upside down cat harass any of my other fish in either of the tanks. They're pretty resilient because the heater in the small tank shorted out one night and when I noticed it the next day the water was over 86 degrees (I ended up losing all but three of the fish then). Now she's a little over 3 inches, still hides except when fed. Ultimately fish are like people, some are nice, some aren't, even if they are the same breed. It comes down to luck of the draw. Good luck!
—Guest laminatedgorilla

No way, gentle soul. We have two. Had then for 5 years. How about mating. Different behavior lately. What do you think?
—Guest Maryellen Courtney

I've had my upside-down catfish for 8 yrs now. When we bought him we was only about 2" long....now he's 8" long. He pretty much just floats at the top looking dead, but is active at night. In the past 8 yrs he's lived with silver dollars, goldfish, guppies, platty's, guarami, chinese fighting fish & koi - get's along with everyone - no problems yet.
—Guest Luke's mom

My upside-down catfish is about 7cm long, and is not quite of the usual character. He managed to kill my previous guppies, so I had to get fish which are not that small, so that they can fight back. He lives in a cave which I built for him, which he reluctantly shares with several snails. Yes, he is a Synodontis Nigriventris. He is slightly bloated from all the food he eats though- he pushes the other fish away and eats the entire portion while the platys and my gourami get the mere leftovers.
—Guest lolman

so here it is in a nutshell- alice ,or ralph. which ever is not eating ,I mentioned to the betterhalf ,she tested the water and found it quite acid. now its back to almost netrul still not eating, he's about 3-4yrs,old I think his head has gotten lighter in color over the last 2-3 mtnhs. temp is good ,water level ,back up again since wfe,did test, I avoid testing because I don't like getting yelled at.so any help will be appreciated please. Thanks
—Guest freddy

My catfish is brilliant. He must be about 3-4 years old now. He is quite shy, when I put flakes of food in I have to keep quite still or leave before he goes up to the surface to eat them, however if I drop some pellet food into the tank he quickly comes to seek them out and hoover them up. He seems very hardy, surviving the longest of any of my fish. My tank heater broke but he seems unphased by the cooler water, to an extent where I have not hurried to replace the heater. As someone said above, mine has also developed some white spots, but it does not look like any kind of disease. Overall, a great fish, and very easy to look after.
—Guest :-)

I have 1 upside down catfish. We had him for a long time. He was very small in our small fish tank but then we moved him to our big fish tank. Now he is about 1 or 2 inches long! He has eaten about 4 or 5 of our fish and one of then were pretty big. If you want eaten fish or one big fish then go get one. If you get one make sure he isn't around other fish in a big tank OR don't get a big tank. (ALL TRUE!)
—Guest My name is

I have 1 upside down catfish, and all it ever does is hide! Only comes out in the evening, after I have fed her. These fish do well in a community tank, as long as the fish in the top half of the tank are fast! overall, a good starter fish.
—Guest smiles

My catfish mostly hides behind the wood and stones that I placed in my tank, quite boring. When I feed my fish, he comes out, swimming up side down (I know it's the name of the fish, but I find it so cool when he does it that I had to mention it =D) He lives with 20 tetra's, a few guppy's, a shrimp and a few other fish. He became huge in those 3 years I've kept him! He's like 15 centimeters or something! He also has some strange white spots which I cannot find on the internet. He doesn't suffer or something, their just there.
—Guest ess

My beta does well with my upside down catfish they never fight or any thing. One stays at the top of the tank one at the bottom in a 1 gallon tank
—Guest killer

This cat is one off the coolest fish I have in my tank.....they are not aggressive very snotty ....normally you find them hiding them behind the rocks. but when you feed your fish they would come out with in seconds, as if they knew the food was on the way....I have 4 of them they are very small. they feed well...
—Guest prem

I have had an upside down catfish for about a year now and she is my favorite fish. She (pretty sure she's a she, she's pale and has a bit of a tummy) spends most of her time hiding in this house we have in the tank. About 7 months ago, she "disappeared". My boyfriend said he looked everywhere for her and found no sign of her body in the tank which I found weird. I was a little upset. Well, we got two other different kinds of catfish and we were cleaning the tank 4 weeks after she disappeared and this dragon thing in our tank that has holes underneath got knocked over. We were about to go out when I see a fish swimming erraticly and I realized it was her!! She was freaked out, but she was still alive, I was shocked! She lived underneath that dragon for a month. She's a very hardy fish!!! We have her and a few other fish in a 50 gallon tank. She survived a move in a bucket for over a day (the tank was a mess!!) and in a kitchen sink when we were having tank problems. Awesome fish!!!!
—Guest Christina

I've had 3 USDCF for a little over 3 years. They've lived peacefully with my Plecostomus and guppies the entire time. Never had any problems.
—Guest Kaitlyn

Shirlie Sharpe
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