All about the red tailed catfish

GBG

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 2, 2006
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ny
Someone mentioned the mucus they secrete...it's actually them shedding when they have a big growth spurt.

Actually I think the shedding is more often than not a sign of stress, usually from poor water quality.
 

necrocanis

Catfish God
Staff member
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Oct 10, 2005
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it may not be due to a growth spurt, my catfish do it sometimes when i do their tank maintanence. All water params excellent, and fat and healthy as can be. Sometimes i think they just need to get rid of some excess too.
 

stereo

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 26, 2006
90
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Singapore
i have 1 question...

i have gravels and pebbles in my tank..will the RTC eat up them accidently?

the size of the gravels n pebbles is around his mouth size..how?
 

ZOO YORK 207

Polypterus
MFK Member
May 14, 2006
5,182
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Frederick, MD
just 3-4inches haha
still a young RTC...but my gravel are small enough to fit in its mouth...
yeah the RTC will eat them on acedent but dont worry he will most likely spit it back up mine is 10" and doesnt eat the gravel much but my other one eats gravel all the time and gets bloated they are smart sometimes but not all the times
 

Redtail_Watcher

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 26, 2006
803
1
0
Columbus, Ohio
speaking of gravel, it was when last fall of 05 cleaning my rtc tank i pick up a huge unsual gravel it have egg shape size of and desity of a large marble. (i wish i didn't ever picked it up..) it was really hard and finally out of curiousity i crushesd it. -Darn thing, it was poop! (made me wanted to cry.. because it stank, and i thought was smart.) pretty stupid of me.

But yeah i have heard of stories of rtc eating gravel purposely to help them digest hard foods like crayfish. to help grind them up in there stomachs. I wouldn't doutb it nor you should be worried if your rtc sallow a bit of gravel.

1.)it should latter spit it back up or crap it out of it system

2.)just make sure your gravel isn't sharp at all.
 

Redtail_Watcher

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 26, 2006
803
1
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Columbus, Ohio
speaking of gravel, it was when last fall of 05 cleaning my rtc tank i pick up a huge unsual gravel it have egg shape size of and desity of a large marble. (i wish i didn't ever picked it up..) it was really hard and finally out of curiousity i crushesd it. -Darn thing, it was poop! (made me wanted to cry.. because it stank, and i thought was smart.) pretty stupid of me.

But yeah i have heard of stories of rtc eating gravel purposely to help them digest hard foods like crayfish. to help grind them up in there stomachs. I wouldn't doutb it nor you should be worried if your rtc sallow a bit of gravel.

1.)it should latter spit it back up or crap it out of it system

2.)just make sure your gravel isn't sharp at all.
 

waterleo8888

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 19, 2007
10
0
0
FL
HI, I'm a new member and I have an Amazon Red tail. It's a monster and i love him. I learned the hard way about how territorial they are, it's eaten several cichlids and 2 dinosaur eels. Now it's in a 75 gal. with a Tiger Shovel Nose and a Jack Dempsey and they seem to be good buddies. The 2 catfish are approx. 12'' long! they have more than doubled in size since I got them late last year. I feed them feeders and ghost shrimp once a week. Anyways, hello to everyone @monsterfishkeepers!
 

necrocanis

Catfish God
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Oct 10, 2005
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welcome to MFK and you might be in for a big suprise when comes to how big your cats can get. I'd say read up on the stickies at the top of the catfish section for some more info, but just for starters rtc and tsn can both get to over 3'-4'. 75 gal will only last months at best. Mine is 10" long and is only 3 months old. He will be going into the 1100 gal pond in like 3 days.
 
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