Redtail Catfish Tail Color

[longfin]

I do not know if my Redtail catfish need to be a certain age for his red coloration to come out. here what i feed him shrimps, blood worms, goldfish ( i raise gold fish myself) Thanks for the help.

 

[techen]

Why do you feed your red tail gold fish? I hate the idea of live fish being used as food. If they carry illness or something worse it's bye bye catfish.
 
Anyhow, How old is it? It should have some colour unless it's stress which makes fish loose there colours.

 

[Paradise3]

Also what size tank is it in?

 

[longfin]

If you have not notice i said i raise my goldfish which all the illness and others is bye bye. got him a 4 weeks. hes tail coloration was like brownish when i took him hes has a little red but barly red. housing in a grow out tank in a 55g. Btw not sounding rude but thats how redtail catfish is like they eat anything that fit in its mouth  and my redtail does not like eating pellets. Also he is as normal as any redtail can be out at 10 pm swims untill daylight no stress (not that i can see).

 

[Paradise3]

If you have not notice i said i raise my goldfish which all the illness and others is bye bye. got him a 4 weeks. hes tail coloration was like brownish when i took him hes has a little red but barly red. housing in a grow out tank in a 55g. Btw not sounding rude but thats how redtail catfish is like they eat anything that fit in its mouth  and my redtail does not like eating pellets. Also he is as normal as any redtail can be out at 10 pm swims untill daylight no stress (not that i can see).

 
And what do you plan to put him in when he's 5ft plus?

 

[fluttermoth]

The problem with feeding goldfish is that they contain an enzyme called thiaminase which will prevent your catfish from processing vitamin B. That applies to rosy red minnows and guppies as well. I'm not sure if this would affect it's colouration or not, but it will certainly become an issue for it's health if you continue to give it feeder fish.
 
You should really get him on a decent diet; frozen lancefish, or other marine fish, like cod or haddock would be good.

 

[longfin]

If you have not notice i said i raise my goldfish which all the illness and others is bye bye. got him a 4 weeks. hes tail coloration was like brownish when i took him hes has a little red but barly red. housing in a grow out tank in a 55g. Btw not sounding rude but thats how redtail catfish is like they eat anything that fit in its mouth  and my redtail does not like eating pellets. Also he is as normal as any redtail can be out at 10 pm swims untill daylight no stress (not that i can see).

 
And what do you plan to put him in when he's 5ft plus?

a pond i am making

The problem with feeding goldfish is that they contain an enzyme called thiaminase which will prevent your catfish from processing vitamin B. That applies to rosy red minnows and guppies as well. I'm not sure if this would affect it's colouration or not, but it will certainly become an issue for it's health if you continue to give it feeder fish.
 
You should really get him on a decent diet; frozen lancefish, or other marine fish, like cod or haddock would be good.

i am not feeding giving him goldfish everyday i feed him shrimps and bloodworms mostly

 

[Paradise3]

How big will the pond be? Sorry if this sounds like I'm interrogating you but we get a lot of people saying they've bought a big monster fish and they've got it in a 3ft tank or something like that.

 

[longfin]

My bad might sound like this is wrong or so. But all i have to say  is that the pond going to be pretty big. BTW what happen on my question hate when people switch topics all i want is a answer.

 

[Paradise3]

My bad might sound like this is wrong or so. But all i have to say  is that the pond going to be pretty big. BTW what happen on my question hate when people switch topics all i want is a answer.

 
You got an answer... Stress.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Good luck building the olympic sized swimming "pond" you will need...
 
[video]http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FcecafIWTo[/video]
 
[video]http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=29U787KK6ck[/video]

 

[fluttermoth]

BTW what happen on my question hate when people switch topics all i want is a answer.

The trouble is that you can't just, with fish, look at just one or two factors, they all (tank size, filtration, diet) have to be taken into account.
 
Just as examples, if your fish is not on a good diet, that could affect it's colouring, if the tank is too small it could be causing loss of colour due to stress, if your filtration is inadequate that could cause the fish to lose colour due to illness or ammonia/nitrite issues.

 

[prairiefire86]

Was it that color when you bought it? Some dealers have crosses with shovel nosed and I've seen them look exactly like your typical redtail even to the point that we've had to label them as "your guess as good as ours" because we ordered a redtail and a hybred at the same time and so happened the hybred had all red tail characteristics. Sometimes if the store has multiple employees (or not) speaking from frustrating experience a catfish will hid in the tank, one employee will remove a label and when it re appears months later they assume. A store that shows great effort in communication among staff is help full when getting fish. I can say the most common thing I noticed from the specimens is a lot of time they lacked the tail color. Another thought to look into because I am not sure if the hybreds breed or what not but maybe they crossed a species in the past lineage. Another thought is that some retailers have the option to purchase different grades of fish. It can be based on a number of things and color is at times one of those considerations put into this consideration. And then yes stess and diet can be a factor of color in fish. I can say tho that the young red tails we got in did have red tails though some more spectactular than othera. I live in a city that has a major university, hospital, and other high salary positions and said folk have some MONSTER pond like tanks in their places. I've help install, and performed maintance on them. Many have red tails. They are my favorite but the only tank I've helped with that had any luck keeping other species with them without eventrully being all eaten (occasional but not all of the other species)was a owner who had trained the cat to eat in one spot in the tank. No idea how he got it to work but its the same concept some aquariums use with their predatory fish. If you've ever taken a behind the scenes tour at one and walked on the cat walks above its amazing seeing this or that shark chewing on the frame of the walk because its feeding day and that is that sharks feeding spot lol.
Considerations of difficulties I have heard is that they bust tanks a lot because they have a strong "wallup" when they feed so I would recommend a dug in pond. Feeding when they get larger-the water pollution of the large meals, and cost of food. Cost of heating that much water, and cost of the water exchanges. Lighting is hard too because for viewing its hard since they hang out in dark places and the ponds are usually indoors since the winters here so usually you don't get the daylight helping. If you get a chance to stop by a museum with a river tank, alot of those around here have native flat heads that have similar habits that polite the water I would recommend it. See if you can see their filtration system.
I am no expert but I've seen a lot of dedication to ones fish. Best of luck to you!

 

[Mrbarry]

I had a red tail in an 11' x 3' x 2'6" tall tank some years ago, terrible idea! 11 feet is simply far too small for a red tail cat, they need 25' x 8' as a minimum IMHO. such a vast animal! And he eat more food than you would belive, £10 a day some days. All frozen irradiated food. His tail was never bright red but not brown at all. He did turn pale when water quality wasn't tip top, and I do mean TIP TOP!! 1ppm of anything and he wasn't happy. I ran a 8 foot sump and 2 fluval 404 canisters and he was so greedy they couldn't cope, if I fed less I had other health issues and he had a number if trips to the vet but after 5 years I found he had rammed the glass one night and killed him self.
I'll never keep another they are just not for the pet trade. But if you want to get colour into his tail good food and excellent water would be my advice, and not too much light.

Other tips for keeping a red tail would be a sump with heaters etc in because in the early days I had my red tail swallow 1 300w heater and thrash about like mad, and ram another smashing it. He was only 18 inches long at that time, as he grew I dread to think what he would have done to anything in his way/tank.