PlanetCatfish.com

Hello all,
I got a red tailed catfish about a year ago, he is in a 135 gallon fish tank.

is this too small for him? he is currently about 24" long and am wondering if i should try to build a larger tank....

thanks for ya'lsl help

It'll definately be good if you can give it a bigger tank for it to reach its protential BIGGER size.

i was thinking about building a plywood tank. my current tank size is 72"x18"x18". If i make a plywood tank that was 72"x36"x18" or 72"x36"x24" would this keep him better for his life time?

I wanted to do this becasue i had a nice stand and i could extend the stand back and make it easier for him to turn around. or would i need to make it longer?


also do pywood tanks last a long time or do the not last as long as a glass tank?

I am assuming you are referring to the South American red tail cat, Phractocephalus hemiliopterus. Basically NO. This is a species that gets debated here quite often and is considered to be a species that should not be housed in home aquaria, even some public aquaria are not large enough to house this species properly. This fish can and will reach a size of around five feet and to give it adequate space the aquaria should be at least twice its adult body length in width, at least five times in length and one and a half in depth.

I would compare keeping RT Cats in home aquaria with trying to keep a Puma as a domestic cat in an apartment.

Ian

yep that is him!

hmmm, well i have him so i am going to have to figure something out....pond idea wont work.....


that does explain why i have never been able to do just monthly water chages the nitrate always builds up quicker than useual, people have never been able to tell me why

the other thing tho, all of the web sites that i found that listed info on this fishrecommended 100+ gallon tanks, it never said it was not recomended for keeping in aquariums, of course this was a year or two when i got him.

kissajew86 wrote:the other thing tho, all of the web sites that i found that listed info on this fishrecommended 100+ gallon tanks, it never said it was not recomended for keeping in aquariums, of course this was a year or two when i got him.

You must have checked out sites where the people either have never actually kept the fish, or are those who think it's OK to have some kind of living trophy trapped in a too-small aquarium. Even Damian Hirst gives his subjects more room than that, and his are at least dead!
I have (not through choice) housed RTCs in 1000 gallon aquaria, and have come to the conclusion that even this is not enough through watching their behaviour.
As Ian said, this is not a fish for the home aquarium.

well what should i do with him???

the only place i could take him is the local pet store and they would just re sell him

well....that is funny people were willing to critisize me having one but wont tell me what to do with him......hummm

you could release it in to natural waters.

pictus_man_77 wrote:

you could release it in to natural waters.

Pictus,
That is singularly the worst advice you could possibly offer. And just how would Texas be considered part of this fish's "natural waters"?

Please contemplate your responses instead of just posting a response.

This has been debated on these forums many times before, but other than finding someone else to take it off of your hands (in other words passing on the burden to another), IMHO the most humane thing to do is to painlessly euthanize the fish.

That's the real tragedy with Red-Tailed Catfish in the aquarium hobby. The better you do at keeping them, the faster they grow to a size were they become a problem. And... ...the harder you try to keep them well, the quicker you reach the inevitable and often heart-wrenching conclusion that these fish shouldn't be in an aquarium in the first place.

Kissajew86, I sincerely feel for you. IMO, I cannot offer any viable solutions other than that listed above.

If you could sneak it here into Australia I'd be happy to give you AUD$1000 dollars for it! (seriously).

Why don't you set up an above ground splash pool? 4m diameter x 1m deep is about 10 tonne of water, reasonably portable and is quite cheap to buy.

I use a few of these for some of my larger fish with some netting to stop birds - from being eaten :)

none of you lot can give your fish the same room as in the wild so lets all go kill our fish, all you can do is give them the best you can, why are these fish sold if there that big a problem i have seen 2 red tails on sale to day at just over 2" no warnig of how big thay get ! mine is 12" i just got him a new tank about 2000 l , you see small fish that grow to 4 " in small tanks (12" x 8" x 8")no one is saying kill them ? think i join wrong club here

Mr. Red Tail

You lack the experience of the rest of us. You don't know how much of a problem this is. If you bought a red-tail at a fish store that didn't even have the fish labeled as getting big then that is not a very good fish store. They shouldn't even stock it and if they do, they should tell you about 1,000 times before letting you walk out the door how big the fish get.
We have about a 20 year old red-tail at our fish store that is in only a 300 gallon stock pond and that is way small for him.(Like keeping a St. Bernard in a one bedroom apartment) Are you even prepared to keep a fish for more than 20 years. They'll out live a dog.(And out eat a dog) I know killing the fish sounds horrible but releasing them into the wild is the worst thing that could be done. Once it gets too big, if you can't find a LFS to take one then I agree, the best thing is to euthanize the fish. You will understand better in a couple of years I am sure.

how long does it take to drive from texas to "natural waters"??
you could get a pickup truck and build a big tank on the back and pop im in and drive!!!! or get a boat and sail round.
How big is your garden??? you could turn it into one giant pond

red tail wrote: why are these fish sold if there that big a problem

Because there are always people who will buy them thinking it is OK to have a large migratory fish sat on its belly in a 400 gallon tank. Good profit margins, plenty of resales, and opportunities to flog some nice expensive equipment. Same reason that there will always be plenty of buyers for Burmese Pythons, Iguanas etc.

red tail wrote:you see small fish that grow to 4 " in small tanks (12" x 8" x 8")

Such as? Also, a 4" fish can always be rehoused once it gets rescued from whatever fool thought it was OK to keep it in an aquarium only three times its body length.
Not true of a 4ft fish.

whatever like i said wrong group !

^ Intelligent response, fool.
What do you expect when you join a site dedicated to the proper care and conservation of catfish in aquariums and in the wild.
I'm sure there are plenty of sites that will suit you. Often their members turn up here to tell members of this forum just how wrong they are for trying to promote responsible fishkeeping/management
Why do they come here? Because this site is by far the best of its kind.

And as for not being able to give fish the same space as they would have in the wild...small fish have small territorys, large fish have huge territorys, and are often migratory. Even mere 12" Oscars are known to hold territorys at least 10' in diameter. What do people keep them in? 4' tanks
Now what size territory would a 4'-5' Redtail have?
How wide would your tank need to be so they can make their large sweeping turns?

to kill a well fish sure, no ones on about oscars most are in 3' tanks lets kill all them to . no one has the right to keep big fish or any fish in YOUR book then ?????????????? as all need more room than you can give them !!!!!!!!!! so lets all now go kill all fish in tanks ! yeah right !!!!!!!!!

pturley Wrote A LONG TIME AGO:

This has been debated on these forums many times before,

Typical...

It seems you have gone a bit kill-crazy and have trouble answering simple questions...

to kill a well fish sure, no ones on about oscars most are in 3' tanks lets kill all them to . no one has the right to keep big fish or any fish in YOUR book then ?????????????? as all need more room than you can give them !!!!!!!!!! so lets all now go kill all fish in tanks ! yeah right !!!!!!!!!

I mean, is that even a sentence? Does the idea of humanely putting down an animal excite you or something?

And as for not being able to give fish the same space as they would have in the wild...small fish have small territorys, large fish have huge territorys, and are often migratory. Even mere 12" Oscars are known to hold territorys at least 10' in diameter.

^I think that was pretty easy to understand. IT IS EASY TO PROVIDE FOR THE NEEDS OF SMALL FISH. Humanely providing for the needs of large fish in captivity is out of most peoples reach. Unless you have access to unlimited funds and a large amount of space, don't purchase them.

I noticed that the forum has no rules on trolling and flame baiting, so perhaps this is the right time to start instituting one.

IMO, trollers and flame baiters (such as our friend red tail here) should be banned immediately. No three strikes.

I am locking this topic. The discussion has outlived its relevance and usefulness.