My catfish attacks and harasses my koi and goldfish. Please help?

Question

I have 2 koi, one gold fish, and a catfish. I made sure they wer all compatible before I put them together and they have been happily together for 7 months. Now suddenly the catfish is very mean, he bit the tail of one of the koi off and he chases all the fish around the tank. When they try to eat, he charges at them and chase them away. The chases have been so intense that they bump really hard into the side of the tank and I'm afraid one of them is going to get really hurt. I thought it was friendly play until he bit the koi's tail off. What is making him so mean all of a sudden? He's an albino catfish about 4 inches long and the koi are bigger than him and almost as long. Is there something about catfish behavior that I don't know. I really want all of my fish to live in peace.

Answer 1

I had 2 neon tetras and 2 albino catfish (these are aggressive fish), the albinos started out really nice and just stayed at the bottom. Then one day, 1 of the albino catfish got really agressive, and ate a neon tetra. I fed all of them properly. The next day, he ate the second neon tetra. The third day, he ate the other albino catfish, who wasn't agressive. And the fourth day he died because he was so full. My advice, don't get an albino catfish, they just turn on you.

Answer 2

Do you know the sientific name of your catfish? I am trying to figure out what kind of Albino catfish you have but all I come up with on the search is the cory's and they only get 2" long.

Answer 3

who advice you to put catfish along koi and goldfish?  your solution is either put a barrier or transfer the catfish.  It became a habit hard to make it change.

Answer 4

At 4 inches, it sounds like you've got an albino channel catfish.  Be aware these are not only scavengers, but predators as well,  It will try to eat anything it thinks it can get in it's mouth.

Answer 5

Many catfish are piscivores (meaning they eat fish) as well as whatever they can find on the bottom of the environment.  Unless you have your fish in a 150 gallon aquarium or larger, your catfish is probably getting quite territorial and most likely is underfed.  Sinking wafers for carniverous catfish could help take the edge off of his agression, however, it is best to find a new home for your cat.  If you want your fish to live in peace then you might consider reading a few articles before you buy them nextime.

Answer 6

are you feeding him sinking wafers or letting him just pick up whats left to sink by the other fish??

My cory cat did something similar and i realized he wasn't eating enough because he started trying to feed at the top of the tank (very unsuccessfully) so i bought him the sinking wafers and he relaxed again. Hope thats it! if not good luck!