PlanetCatfish.com

Please Help My Redtail hasnt eaten anything in almost a month, i've done small water changes every two weeks now, and it's not the water. he wont eat anything, if he puts it in he spits it right back out. Please help, i cant loose another one.

Well, I would say that it IS the water, at least until you have checked the water quality. Doing bi-weekly waterchanges may not be sufficient if the fish is getting big. The fact that the fish spits food back out once it's picked it up sounds to me like it's water quality issues. Have the water tested for NO3 (Nitrate), NO2 (nitrite) and NH3/NH4 (ammonia). Get the figures, not just a "good" or "bad", because with the actual numbers we can tell how the tank is doing in more ways than just a "that's OK" or "that's bad".

Also the size of the fish and the size of the tank would help.

However, it's also a well-known fact that big pimelodids will not eat quite so freqently when they get big.

I must say that I feel that Red Tail Catfish shouldn't be imported, as there's no way[1] that they can be kept for their natural life-span in captivity (which may well be more than 30 years), as they grow to 4-5 feet and will require a swimming-pool sized tank/pond, which also needs to be heated to the relevant temperature (at least 20 degrees, 25 being closer to ideal).

[1] Yes, there are a few, very dedicated, fish-keepers that both have the resources and motivation to keep this type of fish, but that's one or two in every million aquarists.

--
Mats

THe fish is about 8 inches long in a 50gl tank. He is the only fish in the tank. We didnt get him ourselves, we found him at a petshop and his previous owner had abandoned him there with 4 others that were supposed to have been living in one tank

An 8 inches fish in a 50 gal tank should be OK [1], but it depends on how big the water changes you're doing is. There's generally no harm in doing bigger or more frequent water changes - obviously, this can get absurd, but I've seen reports of discus breeders that change 80% of the water every day - this is to encourage the fast growth that clean water helps with.

[1] But I bet the tank is already technically too small - the fish should have 4L x 2L x 2L, where L is the length of the fish, which means 32 x 16 x 16 inches, and most 50g tanks are narrower than 16 inches in my experience. It's not panic time just yet, but as it grows, you'll need to figure out a bigger tank for it, and it will eventually (not too distant future if nothing goes wrong) be so large that any of the commercially available tanks are no longer large enough. Maybe one or two years, and you'll be looking at a custom-built system with non-standard filtration (pond filters are recommended for this, as they are available in large sizes that).

--
Mats

Do i need to keep trying to feed him? If so what do i need to try and feed, he's never had live food before, and hes been eating fresh duck-chicken-stealhead meat. I've also tried worms. Thanks

Do i need to keep trying to feed him? If so what do i need to try and feed, he's never had live food before, and hes been eating fresh duck-chicken-stealhead meat. I've also tried worms. Thanks

It is best to stay away from offering live foods (except of course large worms)

There was a similar problem posted last year that might be of help


see here

thank you for all your help with my fish, but we had to put him to sleep, we couldnt watch him suffer like that. When we cleaned out the tank we found a piece of brass in it and we think that may have been the problem. The brass what the back of a lapel pin. Thank you again