HELP! RTC will not eat, any advice? tips? tricks?

[spidartanks]

Hi, i have a RTC i have had him for about 6 months now and he is already around 18"
he is in a 100 gallon tank at the moment with 1 other smaller fish and i am looking to upgrade soon. I do water changes once a week(ish) and temp is at 78 degrees.

first my RTC broke off one of his "feelers" and that is slowly growing back now. i also moved the fish tank 2 weeks ago, which perhaps put some stress on him?

He now will not eat, i have tried a few different foods, food which he has been taking no problem over the past 6 months. tilapa, salmon, bass, worms.
I put a few feeders in the tank which he may have eaten but the Red devil may have eaten those.


?? How long can he go with out eating
Why is he not eating?
Is there anything i can to to stimulate an appetite?
Is a few drops of salt bad for Catfish? (i know it reduces stress on other fish)


THanks for any advice you can offer - i hope i provided enough information

[MatsP]

Let me first say that RTC's not eating is a VERY common problem on this forum. I have probably seen this question 15-20 times in the past few years.

I suspect that the stress of moving hasn't helped matters, along with the fact that the tank is FAR to small for a 18" fish.

Most likely, you'll find that your filter isn't capable of coping with the ammonia/nitrite that is being produced by your large fish.

Best advice is to reduce the feeding until the fish eats. If you can move his "tankmate" somewhere else, that would reduce the load on the tank, so would help.

And get that bigger tank - make sure it's SIGNIFICANTLY larger, as you'll need something bigger yet again otherwise. Say 10 x 20' or so.

--
Mats

[spidartanks]

alright, so it is a common problem. that being said. How are people getting their cat to eat again?

try different foods? offer same foods? change temp? water changes more frequently?

it probably has been about 10 days since he has really eaten anything other than perhaps some of the feeders which i threw in the tank?

[MatsP]

Fixing the water quality problems that are (usually) the original cause of the problem is the key.

The other point is of course that in nature these fish don't eat every day as adults - feeding decent size meal once a week is probably better than trying to feed small amounts each day.

Have you tested your water for ammonia and nitrite? Also nitrate levels...

--
Mats

[necrocanis]

I'd have to agree with what's already been said. I am the proud owner of a RTC x TSN hybrid that is currently 36". I feed him/her about once every 5 days. Also what you must realize is that as that fish grows longer it grows exponentially in weight. The heavier the fish is the more waste it will generate. You should be testing your water to see when you need to do a water change. I think that you will find yourself doing many water changes with a RTC in a tank that size. Upgrade to at least a footprint of 4' x 10'. That would be the bare minimum for a RTC for life. Along with that provide a wet/dry filter and sump basin with at least a 200 gal capacity for just the sump. Use about 50-75 gals of scrubbies and you will be set up for life for this magnificient creature. The other option would be what I did. A massive indoor heated pond with the same filter requirements. I find that I need about a minimum of 25 gals of wet/dry material for a 36" catfish, so the more the better. For a full grown 42-48" RTC you will need more like 50 gals worth of biomedia. You should have a rock solid routine of water changes. I change my water 2 days after every feeding, and generally at least 25% or more. Hope this helps.

[taksan]

Another day.... another sad RTC story .... when will they ever learn?

[Kobeclone]

(says sarcastically) Yeah you should never keep a rtc in anything less than a 20 ft X 20 ft pond.

Seriously, at 18 inches he is far too big for a 100 gallon. Upgrade immediately to around a 240 gallon. That will do for a few months-maybe a year- then move him to atleast a 1000 gallon pond. Anything atleast 4X10 foot or 10 foot in diameter will do for live. GO NECROCANIS!!!

[Richard B]

It is said above but the two things to stress are adequate space & top quality water - sort these and you'll have a stress free catfish in no time. Avoid feeding until these are sorted as uneaten food adds to the bioload on the tank. When conditions are right you might want to try feeding soft fruit as it is easily digestible & is something an RTC would eat in the wild