Be very very careful with a netted catfish. The spines are part of the pectoral fins, but are by far the sturdiest part. The first time I tried to net a small bullhead to move him to a larger tank the spines got caught in the mesh, shredding the rest of the fins and getting the poor guy so tangled up that even after cutting the net apart I wasn't able to remove all the pieces from his fins. He swam around for 3 or 4 days trailing bits of netting until they finally fell out.
It took me a while to figure out native plants, and I still don't know a lot. It seems like the species commonly marketed are actually quite a rarity in nature. Plants adapted to low light don't compete well with high light plants since they grow more slowly, and typically there's a strong advantage to be gained by having emergent leaves to reach better light and CO2. Substrate seems to be the key thing though. If you're still setting up your tank I think you'll be glad you put a nice layer of plain dirt on the bottom. None of my tanks have that yet, but their fine sand bottoms wouldn't grow plants for a long time. Finally after having a tank set up for a year and turning under algae and mulm into the sand it's finally capable of supporting plants, including several species I had previously tried with no hint of success.
Really? How would you recommend netting a catfish? Perhaps use a net that has large holes, like the ones you use for fishing? I imagine that would be easier to use instead of a normal large aquarium net.
NANFA Youtube Channel 
