real error in judgment

hey guy was busy starting up a a old tank, to try get my girlfriend into helping me with the hobby.
After 2 weeks of cycling the tank we went down to the lfs to go get some fish. Low and behold she fell inlove with a bay redtale catfish.
It was so tiny and cute about 5cm in legth and impulse to over.
Now i need to plan on housing my future beast
The problem i am having is i have never seen a redtale this small all the ones i have kept in the past where bought around 15cm mark, and ideas as to what i should feed this lil guy
thanks Mark

 

As far as I know a RTC will eat anything including the decor in the tank. Possibly try cutting a shelled prawn into pieces small enough to fit into his mouth, im sure he will go nuts for it. Every fish in my tank goes insane the second a piece of prawn hits the water.

He may even go after live earthworms too. I have a worm farm to feed my fire eel so i can help you out with a few worms if you are stuck. Im in Sandringham which is just down the road from greenstone.

I have often been in two minds about buying a RTC, and have even seen baby Tiger shovel noses for sale but until I have a solid plan in place for a massive tank I would not even consider it. The RTC grows to an epic size and you will need a monster setup with huge filtration to properly house this guy.

 

Good luck man. If it's not too late i'd try convince your GF to return it. These guys grow into monsters!

As mentioned by L~C~G these guys eat absolutely everything. My cousin once had one and this guy would eat anything that could fit in his mouth.

As for your little guy I think you could feed him bloodworms and other pellets for catfish.

If you dont mind me asking how big is your tank?

 

@top dog - Good Luck. That's a lot of potential fish.

 

#monster fish coming your way

 

Definitely a monster fish. I had one a while ago. Also bought the beast out of impulse and its cuteness.
then within a month started growing like mad... I may be corrected, but it was a growth spurt of something ridiculous like 1cm a week. His 4ft tank soon go to small and I gave him to one of my friends with a bigger home. And I know, there he terrorized all fish to the point that he was and still is at the top of the food chain... see attached photo...
But I must add, that they do get very friendly very fast.

 

they certainly have nice colours

 

Esh is all I can say!
Last friday I Visited @Willem to see his 3500L swimming pool to house this "little" fella
and trust me, That is one massive RED TAIL! he has... his head is about 25cm wide and maybe over a Meter.
Tho I couldnt take a picture of this RED tail in this massive swimming pool as the water was just added the night before.
Will ask him to uplaod some pics soon

 

@L~C~G - (off topic but first time I seen it mentioned here) Is there any specific prawns that you use? I assume these are the frozen type you get at the super markets? I bought some this weekend as I wanted to vary the diet of my Tyre track eel, but did not feed him any as I noticed that on the packaging was a notice about some sort of preservitative that had been applied so that the prawns would keep longer. Or are you using fresh prawns from a Fish Monger?

 

Yes, I dont buy from supermarkets. I buy pink prawns with the shell removed from fish mongers. There is a place in Bruma that sells them for about R100 / kg and that lasts about 4 - 6 months with my fire eel. There is also a really reasonable place in Meadowdale.

My fire Eel was fed exclusively on earth worms for the first year that I had him. Since I have been switching every second feeding to prawns his colour has become brighter and he is far more active. I defrost the prawn in room temp water and then cut it into strips because he is used to worm shaped food and he sucks them down like spaghetti that way.

 

hey guys thanks for the advise.
I have had a few red tails over the years and know what size is cable of
at the moment he is in a 3 foot, with a 5 foot in waiting then i have a 2 meter by .9 wide tank on ice in my old mans shed.
just never seen one so tiny before and was worried about just feeding him anything
Trust me woman aint taking him back, he is more loved than me i think

 

Well at least u have a pet river monster now

 

agreed hope it does not end up eating her

 

in that case jeremy wade is the man to call

 

Hahahahah.. Keep us posted with the growth of the little guy!

 

Boy oh boy, I think that you headed this mail correctly. If you are interested go to PM in Boksburg and have a look in their pond. They have a female RTC and she is easy over a metre in length and has a massive head, she eats all sorts of things, but not the Oscars that share her pond. You really do have a potentially huge problem on your hands, Good Luck!

 

Thanks L~C~G he ate a chop up shirmp like a pro, can not believe i never thought of that before you mentioned it,
Now i just got brace my self for the insain growth

 

The smell of prawn / shrimp seems to carry like crazy in water. I bought a malawi that would not eat and after a week I get really worried, I tried every food i could think of and he would hide way every time I put food in. One evening I was feeding the eel and a small piece of prawn broke off from the piece I had in my hand and was floating around in the water. I just saw a streak from the back of the tank and this guy had nailed it from spotting it about 70cm away.

After that I got him fattened up on prawns and he started eating pellets a few days later.

You are going to have an expensive problem if your RTC develops a real taste for prawn! :laugh:

 

agreed but atleat it is not crayfish i guess
Used to feed my large one on muscles and crab sticks a few years back and it was not cheap