Conference 7.286::fish

1689.0. "Whiptail cats and bubbles" by EVMS::MARION (So many fish ...) Fri Mar 07 1997 16:42

I've got two Whiptail catfish in quarantine, destined for my 90 gallon planted
tank.  The store did not know the latin name, but if I had to guess, I'd say
they were likely to be Rineloricaria microlepidogaster.  Now that's a mouthful!

At any rate, they've been hanging out in my 10 gallon quarantine tank for a 
couple weeks now and yesterday I noticed that the surface of the water is 
covered in bubbles.  It looks for all the world like a bubble nest such as my
Betta splendens create.  The only other occupants of this tank are two young
gold barbs, destined to join the other gold barbs in the same 90 gallon as the
whiptails.  Now, the literature states that these whiptails (if I've got the 
cats identified correctly) spawn in hollow tubes and caves, such as would be
reproduced by a PVC pipe.  But I seem to recall an article I read (which I 
can't for the life of me find) which said that some catfish do create bubble
nests.  Does anyone have experience with these cats?  Is it possible that they
have created this mass of bubbles?  I certainly can't think of any other way
they could have gotten there.

I am hoping that I've got a pair, and if it's possible they're spawning or
have some eggs in there I will leave them in quarantine a bit longer so as 
not to disturb them.

Thanks,
Karen.