Red Lizard Whiptail Catfish (L010a)

Red Lizard Whiptail Catfish - Rineloricaria Sp.

The Red Lizard Catfish is primarily nocturnal, but will often become active during daytime hours once established in an aquarium with plenty of driftwood, rockwork, and other hiding places. It is not known to eat wood heavily like some suckermouth catfish (Panaque sp., etc.), but it may benefit from some supplementary wood (or rather the biofilm on driftwood) in its diet. The Red Lizard Catfish will not bother most plants.  Feed the Red Lizard Catfish an omnivorous diet. Many breeders and keepers of this fish insist that it needs a regular supply of meaty live and frozen foods of appropriate size, such as bloodworms and Daphnia. It will also appreciate being regularly fed some fresh vegetables such as shelled peas, spinach, zucchini and cucumber as well as blanched green, leafy vegetables.  

The Red Lizard Catfish is extremely peaceful and is compatible with most other non-aggressive fish and invertebrates that will not outcompete it for food. It is possible that larger specimens might eat very small dwarf shrimp, particularly their fry. However, some aquarists keep the Red Lizard Catfish with their shrimp colonies with no problems. The Red Lizard Catfish reaches a modest length of just 4.4 inches, and it is a very thin fish that usually does not account for the bioload that many thicker fish of a similar length produce.