white tip shark cat

Question
QUESTION: I have a new (a few weeks old) 55 gallon tank, with 7 neon tetras, an angel fish, 2 swordtails, a shrimp, one of those ugly algae eaters with the suction cup mouth, and a few other small fish that I dont know the name of. My filter is a bio wheel  filter I think.  I haven't changed the water yet but will do so probably in the next few days as I just put my fish in about 2 days agos.  

My question is about the 2 cat fishes I purchased.  I have  one that keeps swimming up and down the side of my tank.  The other cat swims on the bottom but will join the other in swimming up and down when he see the other one doing so.  Is this normal?  I have searched other sites but could not find anything on catfish behavior but I will continue to search.  

Thank you for ur attention.

Diep Nguyen
Boston, Ma

ANSWER: Yes, it is normal. Most catfish are schooling fish so they like to follow each other around.

Since your tank is not cycled, you are going to have to be doing water changes like crazy for the next month. 30% water changes every other day to keep your fish alive.

They after that you can cut back to 40% weekly or preferably 25% twice weekly.

Look here to learn more about aquarium cycling.

http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

-Nick

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Nick
thank you for your advice.  I went to petco today to buy a pump and spoke to someone there.  He told me that I wouldn't need to change any water for a month.  It seems that every site I read tells me something different.  I wanted to get ur opinon also.  
Thank you again.
Diep

Answer
Word of advice, never trust the pet store employees!

Three reasons-

1) They are mostly kids out of high school looking for an easy job. To get in you just have to say you like animals, you don't even have to have a pet to qualify.

2) Minimum wage, part time work. Most of them don't care too much, and don't know too much.

3) They are shifted around. Someone could apply for a joba s cashier, work there for a day and then work in the fish section. Someone in the fish section could be working in the hamster section, and a stock boy could end up caring for everything. You very rarely get anybody that knows what they are talking about.

I stick to my opinion last time. If you want proof you can look at the facts.

Fish don't like nitrate over 20ppm. Anything over 80ppm is highly toxic and will eventually kill the fish.

Don't do water change for a month and it'll get to 100ppm.

-Nick