Red Tail Catfish

[Carina]

im soooo worried my red tail catfish is going to die

hes in a tank with only one other fish and just recently the tank has come infested with snails. ive put some treatment in the water but the snails keep breeding. i noticed my red tail catfish has a huge pot belly so we took him out of the water and felt his belly gently and you can feel lots of snail shells in his belly. will he be able to pass them or is he going to die ??

 

[chibi]

Wait... how big is the tank he's in? I'm just curious.

It depends on how big he is. Redtail Catfish eat snails in the wild, so I don't think there should be a problem. Is he acting funny, sluggish, or different? That may be a sign he's having trouble digesting him. If he doesn't poo within a day, I'd feed him some peas with the skin peeled off of it. This should get his digestion moving.

 

[Carina]

I know hes going to grow out of my tank but im keeping him until he does grow out of it lol. ive read just how big they grow and wish i had a huge tank for him so i could keep him but i dont.

hes about 9 inches long at the moment. hes not acting funny hes just got a huge bulge on his stomach which is why i first became concerned. he usually sits on the bottom anyway so thats no different. he has pood but the bulge is still there. fingers crossed for my little man!

 

[Fella]

I've heard of this being dealt with before by adding undigestible animal fats to teh RTC's diet, meaning that they will then effectively "vomit" to clear the stomach.

I wouldn't know how to administer that though, you're better off asking an RTC expert.

 

[Carina]

i would if i could find one lol

 

[CFC]

Anything that a catfish cant digest will be regurgitated within around a week, in the wild they often eat things like turtles, crabs, freshwater clams and mussels and once all the meat has been digested they spit the shells back out. I feed my large catfish whole clams in their shells and they have no trouble bringing them back up.

Animal fats are only needed when foreign objects like heaters, filters, rocks/ornaments or fake plants have been swallowed which might damage the gill rakers on their way back out, the fat coats the object in a film which lubricates it and makes it come up easier and without damage.

The trouble you now face is having a large predatory fish in a fairly small tank which is about to unload its stomach contents into its water, in small tanks this is disasterous and can pollute the water so much that filter bacteria are knocked out by overwelming ammounts of ammonia and the fish die rapidly. Be prepared to do a 100% water change at a moments notice the minute the RTC decides its time to throw out the trash.

Of course it might just digest the shells.

 

[Carina]

ok thank you.

i just got so worried when i saw this massive lump on him. hes a gorgeous fella and will be a shame to let him go when i eventually have to!

i will let you know if he digests them and if the lump goes

 

[mr.dark-saint]

My 34+ something African Lungfish went off food for a while. He normally would come up to the surface as I tap the top (like moving the top as to feed him) but he wouldn't move. Then one day he pooped a "brick" (and usually it's removeable by using a python big as it may be) but this last one was like a what a cat would drop in the litter box . Solid and wouldn't go so I left it to see how long it would take before it "would". There it sat the first week with no sign of ever going . Then came the second week still solid but a few bubbles from the nitrogen cycle. Third week pretty much the same as week two. By fourth week I lost interest (after all it's just poop).

Anyhow, he being like most catfish which would eat in either a hurry or doesn't care what goes down the gullet. Now I had me a Bagrus (30+ inches) who would hack up everything he couldn't pass it's stomach. That was some foul looking sight . Never did get backed up like the Lungfish.

With your situation (Carina) I feel it may be the "meds" to treat the snails. (I'd like to know what that is).

 

[§tudz]

hrm... just a note have you got a place lined up for the RTC when he gets too big which I would imagine wouldnt be far away? as most places wont take them...

 

[Rocky32189]

I'm facing almost the same dilemma but much worse. My Red Tailed Catfish ate not one but two suction cups! They are the ones I connect to my airline. Since then I've removed all the others but I'm starting to get a bit worried because he hasn't thrown them up yet. He seems to be swimming fine though and doesn't look like he's in any discomfort even though he has two huge lumps in his stomach.

A word of warning to everyone, do not buy this fish! I didn't buy mine but saved it. My cousin (who knows nothing about fish) bought one to put in his 65 gallon tank and when it ate a few of his fish he said he was going to flush it down the toilet. Since I have a 150 Gallon tank I took him but he's going to outgrow the tank very quick.

If you do not feed this fish for even one day he'll eat something in your tank. One day I didn't feed him, he ate my yellow lab african cichlid. Just last week I didn't feed him for one day and he ate my 6 inch pleco! And he's only around 8 inches. These things will try to eat anything. I once caught him with my Parrot in his mouth. He was trying to eat it but his mouth wasn't quite big enough so he let it go. These fish are insane and should not be kept in an aquarium.

 

[Carina]

I totally agree. this fish should not be sold in pet shops to people who dont have a clue about the fish

 

[demonmagus]

it's a shame that they are sold at all.

in wharf aquatics, they have a dispaly with arrowanas and RTC and stuff (the RTC isn't that big yet), but there are none for sale. THey do have giant gouramies and stuff though, but I imagine if they aren't sold to someone with a large enough tank then it will go in a display.

also, is it true that the ID shark is mass bred in ponds in the East?

RTC are lovely though

 

[Rocky32189]

Good news my red tail spit out one of the suction cups this morning. Hopefully the other one will come up soon.

I totally agree. this fish should not be sold in pet shops to people who dont have a clue about the fish

No, they shouldn't be sold to all. I saw one at the New England aquarium that was 3.5 feet. He was in a display will thousands of gallons of water and he even looked cramped in there. There is no practical home aquarium that can hold one of these full grown. They grow up to 5 feet and they grow very fast. Mine is eating all his tank mates.

Like I said before, I didn't want this fish but saved him from being killed. I don't feel like giving him to a pet store right away, because they'll only put him in an even smaller tank than I have him in now. I'm going to get rid of him only when it's absolutely necessary.

 

[Carina]

i'm in the same position. i got mine off a friend and he ate all of my fish - hes now in a tank with only a large red fin black shark and they get on fine.

just to let you know - the bulge has gone (yay ) although his belly is now sore from the bulge rubbing on the gravel.

i'm hopefully moving soon and will be building a pond in my garden lol ive always wanted a pond but now i have more reason to get one! i would love to hand train them as i have heard you can do with the RTC.

 

[Rocky32189]

Mine has spit out the second suction cup and is swimming fine now. He wasn't looking too good yesterday though.

hes now in a tank with only a large red fin black shark and they get on fine.

Yeah, but he'll soon outgrow that shark and he'll be lunch.

i'm hopefully moving soon and will be building a pond in my garden lol ive always wanted a pond but now i have more reason to get one!

What type of climate do you live in? If it gets cold in the winter where you live I wouldn't attempt it. Heating that thing will be a pain. Something indoors would be better. When I buy a house of my own, I have a dream of building an addition in which I'll build a indoor pond with tons of tropical fish.

i would love to hand train them as i have heard you can do with the RTC.

What do you mean by hand train? I hand feed mine...