Question concerning SA Red Tails

Radius · Post by **Radius** » 30 Nov 2005, 18:38

Hi,

One question about the red tail cats, if someone had a large one, say 4+ feet and introduced a juvenile that was a foot or under, is there a danger of the little guy being eaten, or will the bigger red tail leave its own species alone?

Thanks!

Post by **medaka** » 30 Nov 2005, 23:35

Hi Radius.
I would say the smaller one would be a target for the larger one .
saying that there are sometimes exceptions to the norm, see here for eg

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=12456
I have seen a smaller?( 18 inch) one get on fine in a tank of three larger ones, although it was bullied out of the way when feeding took place, But I have never heard of one serviving long on a one to one basis.

Radius · Post by **Radius** » 30 Nov 2005, 23:50

Ok, thanks. It's just one of those things I've been wondering about. I wouldn't mind two or three red tail cats, I'll just have to get them all as juveniles and raise them together.

[edit]

BTW, I know all about these fish and how big they get, I'm not going to stuff them in a 200 gallon tank if anyone is worried about that.

Wildfish · Post by **Wildfish** » 01 Dec 2005, 03:15

I'm not worried about you "stuffing" Red Tails but I am curious how this "someone" is housing the four footer.

I have a juvenile RTC and I swear I can hear him growing as we speak. He is currently about 6 inches....I am already shopping for pond liners and indoor pond possibilities. I've never seen a 4 foot RTC although I do not dispute their adult length. The largest I have ever seen was at the Steinhardt Aquarium in San Francisco, CA. It was probably 3 feet or so. Who knows where it came from and the conditions of it's care.

Radius · Post by **Radius** » 01 Dec 2005, 03:22

Oh, I think I mislead you, I'm sorry. I was attempting to ask a general question about the nature of the cats. I've seen a few around town that come into pet stores and they're usually around 2 - 3 feet long. I was thinking to rescue one and wanted to add some buddies to his tank. I was just worried he'd eat those of his kind if they were smaller.

There is apparently a 5 footer sitting in an aquarium in Vancouver BC, some coworkers were telling me about it. Apparently the mouth on this thing is unbelievable, I'd love to go see him.

That's my goal though, some nice large ones in a big enclosure. I'm going house hunting in a year or two and my eventual goal is to put an addition onto the house and see if I can have an enclosure built, somewhere in the 20 - 50 thousand gallon range for them.

It's a dream, but I'm trying to make it happen.

Wildfish · Post by **Wildfish** » 01 Dec 2005, 03:37

There is no such thing as too many gallons....just have to make sure and buttress up the floor boards

I most likely will do the indoor pond, so much easier to keep heated and maintain. Plus, you have your precious close by. Absolutely make the trip into Vancouver before the cat is gone. That would be awesome to see a 5 footer. There was this huge sea bass at the Steinhardt. I swear it looked like an animatronic or rather fake or robotic fish.....anyone I asked about the Sea Bass knew exactly what I was talking about. They moved him down the street when they did their renovation. So, you never can tell, make the trip if you can. There are a few large red tails here in my town, nothing over say 2-3 feet, but probably due to conditions of care. Good luck with your project, I wonder if you should buy the juveniles now? They will be a nice size in 2 years, but maybe that is putting the cart before the horse....

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 01 Dec 2005, 12:06

Sounds like a lovely project. Now, how about this idea:

1. You build your large indoor aquarium.
2. You go find a suitable rescue fish that is large.
3. You wait some time.
4. You go find another suitable sized rescue fish.
5. You wait some time.
6. You find some other suitable sized rescure fish.

You now have THREE decent size red-tailed catfish in your house... How many do you need?

There are people out there buying these things as little tiny fish - they all are either unaware or mislead when it comes to the requirements of these fish, so if you can care for a number of these guys, great... I'm sure you'll enjoy it too.

--
Mats

Radius · Post by **Radius** » 02 Dec 2005, 02:48

Wildfish: I agree, the bigger the better.

MastsP: That was an idea I had too, I figure I could almost do a catfish rescue center thing. I haven't made up my mind yet though, and I figure I'm probably 5 - 10 years away from this tank anyhow so I have time to sort it all out.

I also have plans for a 25 foot long bala shark enclosure, I have 6 balas but want more, they're my second favorite fish after catfish.

Anyone care to guess where all my money goes?

superduper · Post by **superduper** » 31 Dec 2005, 00:04

Hey all,

I was just wandering if anyone knows anywhere in the UK that has any large redtail catfish on display?
I've seen one at 2ft in Nottingham and another one at 2ft in a place near Birmingham.

Also, I am seriously considering building a massive tank/enclosure or indoor pond for my 15" redtail cat. Does anyone have any information about how to go about this? I don't want to give my redtail up but I want to make sure that I can properly care for him.

Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 31 Dec 2005, 10:39

superduper wrote:Hey all,

I was just wandering if anyone knows anywhere in the UK that has any large redtail catfish on display?
I've seen one at 2ft in Nottingham and another one at 2ft in a place near Birmingham.

Also, I am seriously considering building a massive tank/enclosure or indoor pond for my 15" redtail cat. Does anyone have any information about how to go about this? I don't want to give my redtail up but I want to make sure that I can properly care for him.

Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Blue Planet Aquarium @ Cheshire Oaks, Elsmere Port, Cheshire.

Website HERE

Click on the sharks teeth for a look at what they have. The Amazon section was of particular interest as they have a Discus setup with Sterbis. A Pirhana tank with a massive plec and a BIG BIG tank with a Red Tail Cat and a HUGE Arapaima, it is massive and will swim right up to you.

superduper · Post by **superduper** » 31 Dec 2005, 12:41

Thanks for that it looks great there, I will definately be paying a visit sometime in the new year.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 03 Jan 2006, 13:16

superduper wrote:Hey all,

I was just wandering if anyone knows anywhere in the UK that has any large redtail catfish on display?
I've seen one at 2ft in Nottingham and another one at 2ft in a place near Birmingham.

Also, I am seriously considering building a massive tank/enclosure or indoor pond for my 15" redtail cat. Does anyone have any information about how to go about this? I don't want to give my redtail up but I want to make sure that I can properly care for him.

Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Here's a link to one guy's home-built tank. Bear in mind, of course, that your fish will outgrow a 2000l tank by some serious amount. You're probably looking at a heated pond of some dimonsions like:
6-8m long, 3-4m wide, and 2-4 m deep, giving a total volume of 18000-64000 liters.

--
Mats

superduper · Post by **superduper** » 04 Jan 2006, 16:53

Hey,

That link was really helpful thanks for that.

You talked about a heated pond, could some kind of swimming pool heater be used to heat it?

I think I will have to get a swimming pool built by the looks of things.

Thanks.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Jan 2006, 17:06

I don't know if swimming pool heaters are good enough for fish-keeping, but I would have thought that that's what you need. Or LOTS of 300W heaters, placed at different parts of the pond.

Just make sure it's deep enough too... And bear in mind the cost for heating the place in winter, so it probably needs to have at least some sort of roof/wall around it, even if it's not indoors. Like a conservatory with a pool in it.

--
Mats

superduper · Post by **superduper** » 04 Jan 2006, 17:18

Thanks.

I will have a look into it further. Either way it will be a costly thing to do.

Would a depth of 6ft be deep enough? I don't think it would be really.

It seems to be becomming more unrealistic.

Thanks for all the help.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Jan 2006, 17:36

This is entirely up to what you mean by "realistic", but going by the guidelines of "2 times the length of the fish" for depth, 6 feet would be good enough for a 3 foot fish. Since a South American Red Tail Catfish can grow to much more than 3 foot (more like 4-5 foot), you'd be looking at a pond that is at least 8, probably better off with 10 foot deep. It's deeper than most peoples garden swimming pools, that's for sure. If I remember right, the public swimming pool in my town where I used to live in Sweden is about 12 foot deep. But it's also 25 meters (80 feet) long and about 8 meters (25 feet) wide and have a 5 meter (16 feet) diving board...

This is a real problem with big fish - the demands on the owner are big.

This is why there's some pressure on this site AGAINST keeping fish that grow more than around 18 inches. Anything much beyond that and you get into "silly" territory, because of the complexity involved in keeping these fish. The cost is one thing, and the other thing to bear in mind, is that the fish will easily live 15-20 years (or perhaps much longer), so you have to account for looking after it for some significant amount of time - and if you decide to move from one house to another, you end up having to build a new pond too. Most people don't even manage to keep them alive long enough to reach a foot, but if they do, it becomes a problem. Sorry for the rant, but I think less than 1% of the people buying these fish actually have ANY IDEA of what they are setting themselves up for.

Of course, you could quite easily keep two or three adult red-tail catfish in one of these ponds...

--
Mats

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 04 Jan 2006, 19:35

superduper wrote:Hey,

That link was really helpful thanks for that.

You talked about a heated pond, could some kind of swimming pool heater be used to heat it?

I think I will have to get a swimming pool built by the looks of things.

Thanks.

With this kind of project it's easier to heat (and insulate) the room that also means that condensation is considerably less of an issue.

Jools