# Bumblebee catfish behaviour



## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

This is my Bumblebee Catfish.










In the 7 months I have had him, this is the best and only picture I have ever gotten of it. Im sure he comes out often when the lights are off. But the weird thing is his behavior when the lights are on. He is active all the time, but never in the open lol
He manages to always stay in the shadows, even at feeding time. I have a huge log in http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/tank-journals-16/my-75-a-25400/ that I always see him swimming around underneath it. If he isn't swimming under it upside down, he will be swimming under it and around it and sometimes over to the cave and back. But he somehow always stays in the shadows and that is why there is no other pix of him in existence. 
Anybody else have these fish and do they all do this or is it just the one I own? lol


----------



## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

they do that. perfectly normal. If you have a group of them, and I am assuming this is the dwarf bumble bee cat, they will be more active during feeding in the open.


----------



## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

Mine comes out very occasionally when the lights are on, but only when he smells something tasty that I've just dropped in the water, and he dashes out as fast as a bullet and snaps it up then back to his cave!


----------



## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

5 Years ago i was given one from a friend and put it into a 60 gallon tank. Never seen him and thought he got eaten the first week.
2 Years ago when I was leaving the hobby I had to fish out and dig out everything... needless to say this 1.5" fish is now a 6 inch catfish I kept all along and still have him.

He was hiding in this tank (old picture) but thought i share.


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

That's awesome Jackson. I was so tempted to get one of these, but it seems they would hunt down my tetras?


----------



## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

charles said:


> they do that. perfectly normal. If you have a group of them, and I am assuming this is the dwarf bumble bee cat, they will be more active during feeding in the open.


Dwarf I presume if there is one or he's a very slow grower lol Im sure it's normal, just odd that even at feeding time he manages to stay in the shadows, like it's part vampire lol Haven't ever seen any for sale on here or any threads about em....guess they are not too popular...but they are cool catfish. Maybe one day I will get a couple more.



Livyding said:


> Mine comes out very occasionally when the lights are on, but only when he smells something tasty that I've just dropped in the water, and he dashes out as fast as a bullet and snaps it up then back to his cave!


lol mine can't get into the cave thanks to my Raphael cat always has his head stuck out the entrance blocking it off. The Fire Eel manages to squeeze in there making it that much harder for anyone else to get into it lol



eternity302 said:


> 5 Years ago i was given one from a friend and put it into a 60 gallon tank. Never seen him and thought he got eaten the first week.
> 2 Years ago when I was leaving the hobby I had to fish out and dig out everything... needless to say this 1.5" fish is now a 6 inch catfish I kept all along and still have him.
> 
> He was hiding in this tank (old picture) but thought i share.


Nice to see ya Jackson! I can see why you never seen him lol bet you never seen half your fish in that jungle lol You'll have to get a recent pic of him, would love to see it at that size.



2wheelsx2 said:


> That's awesome Jackson. I was so tempted to get one of these, but it seems they would hunt down my tetras?


How ya think it got to 6" lol Never had anything smaller than Platys in my tank but he eats everything, bloodworms, flakes, pellets. I don't believe they grow too fast either. Compared to the Raphael i got who was the same size when I got them at the same time, the raphael is close to twice the size and does eat whatever it can get in it's mouth.


----------



## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> That's awesome Jackson. I was so tempted to get one of these, but it seems they would hunt down my tetras?


Sorry, missed your message. But I had tons of smaller fish in there, never had a problem, he's very very inactive. Give him a piece of wood and he practically stays in there until lights are out. That's why I thought he died long ago.



Diztrbd1 said:


> Nice to see ya Jackson! I can see why you never seen him lol bet you never seen half your fish in that jungle lol You'll have to get a recent pic of him, would love to see it at that size.


I'll snap you a picture when I get a chance, unfortunately he hides under the FRT since I leave no hiding spots in the current tank he's in. So when the FRT swims around, he continously crawl underneath him. I'll wait till he hides under the filter. I'll post tonight =)


----------



## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

that is a cool looking catfish. where did you get it?


----------



## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

IPU last summer.....He looks even cooler now he's bigger....just can't get a darn pic of him lol


----------



## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

Best picture I can get. There is no lights on the tank and I don't own a DSLR =) that's all I can get you! he's about 5 years old now since I got him


----------



## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

Oh right, and he's got a big tummy cuz he pigs out Hikari algae wafers with my FRT, he collects the crumbles that the FRT drops.


Thought I edit the post to add a better picture for you


----------

