Asian red tail cat.

[KILLERKOI]

Before I answer your question I want to apologize for my earlier reponse on this forum.> My answer was a mistake. I erred by thinking South American red tail and my sizes of my fish were based on my south american Phractocephalus hemioliopterus cats.

I have kept the asian redtail Hemibagrus nemurus formally mystus nemurus for 16 years. My largest and most aggressive of the 3 I have owned I grew to 18inches in a 240g. He was totally insane. He killed for fun. He almost died the first night I got him (from cichlid man Milo in Chigago). He killed a pair of Blue channel cats both over 24". He stripped their skin off as well just to further torture them. They bled a lot. The water was fouling when I found them the next morning.

When I put him in the tank the night before I was worried the channel cats were going to eat him, they are so thin for their length. So I put a tube if for him to hide in if he was threatened.

The tube did serve as a den for him and the only time any of the fish did not feel terrified was when he actually was in it resting.

I have had two others and neither of them were/are anywhere as viscious as the first one.

The killer black shark Morulius chrysophekadion is the $2.99 type sold in the pet shop at about 2". When small they are a fine community tank fish, however..

They grow big and when they do they will attack many much larger fish that can not turn around on them. They don't kill over night it can be just the constant badgering and deep wounds inflicted over a long period that eventually kill their victim.

I lost 2 large south american red tails Phractocephalus hemioliopterus and my baby arapaima gigas (Nemisis). She was harrassed from the time she was 2 feet till her death at less than 4 years old. She was 5 foot 5 inches and weighed 126 lbs. She was weighed on a local vets scale and her head and tail were touching the ground.

WOW dude u thanks alot for the info really helpful

 

[flamenco-t]

I have the s. american RTC. I keep him in a 135 gal tank with 12" clown knife, and 12" tiger shovelnose catfish.

They pretty much stay away from one another. The RTC is on on side of the tank, sitting on the bottom, the CK swims around a cave and the tiger SCF just hangs around on the other end. I have watched them with lights off for a mere an hour or two and they seems to mind their own business.

The RTC did ate two of my bichirs, but they were swimming around looking for trouble which I believe the reason why they got eaten.

Keep them well fed, give them a place to hide and I think you'll be fine.

PS: my RTC is 12" as well., he grew almost 4" int he last 2-3 months

stan

 

[Redtail_Watcher]

The average size is 2ft. You can get away with a 120gallon tank 2ftw x 4ftL x 2ftH that is the minumun. but the lagrest a Asain RedTail can get is 38inches and I just felt like show aleast a couple pictures so other can see what they look like(here are pictures so... here.)[/ATTACH]

 

[Umbra]

Highly aggressive to the point that it makes that lone dovii or umbee in the 180g look like a sissy. I've kept them on numerous occassions, gave up trying to keep them with anything. During the daytime the more robust cichlids (labiatus, dovii, umbee, etc) could fend off like sized specimens of both wyckioides and wyckii, but at night time it's a different story. I would be lying in bed or on the computer and would hear loud "thuds" from downstairs. For the first few nights I thought nothing of it, sometimes fish get spooked and ram into the glass. Well, come morning time i'd find dead or horribly wounded cichlids, to the point of being gutted or descaled completely. Since there were other cichlids unscathed, I was unsure as to who was doing the damage. Staying downstairs at night, I watched as the catfish would grab the cichlids by the head or belly and slam them against the glass repeatedly. Although as juveniles the temperments varied greatly, which gave me hope, once they hit around 12 inches tl, they all became similarly bad tempered. Not a community fish, plain and simple.

 

[bignootch]

Ditto to the above info. I've tried to raise H.Wickioides on four different occations, and ended up with the same results... It's just like he stated, when the lights go out , watch out!! it is true, i've seen a few of mine's grab fish by the head and ram them into the tank glass very hard. And I've never even kept a specimen over 10". I"de hate to see what a full grown specimen would do to it's tank mates'.....

 

[karpomatic]

I had 2 of these in a 110 gal with 2 oscars a few years ago. I bought them small, around 3" each, for my 65 gal community tank. In a few weeks, they ate all that would fit in thier mouths. In the 110 gal, they quickly grew to about 12" I added 2 medium sized Oscars so something would actually move in the tank. They would eat roseys and crayfish like there was no tomorrow.

 

[necrocanis]

I have several pics of these over 4ft. and one over 6ft. don't believe everything you read on the net.

 

[arapaimag]

I have several pics of these over 4ft. and one over 6ft. don't believe everything you read on the net.

Are you sure that you are not thinking of the South american red tail catfish which does grow that big? That fish is Phractocephalus hemioliopterus. I made a similiar mistake earlier in this thread.

However, If in fact you have pictures of 4 to 6 foot asian redtail catfish hemibagrus nemurus please post them as everyone on this thread would enjoy seeing them.

If you did make an error as to which fish the asian red tail catfish is check out the best catfish site and this thread: http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=801

 

[Kimix]

I'm just making a post so I can hit my 5th post so I can actully view the photos in this thread.

 

[industrialsquad]

do you guys think that mixing this cat with an arowana is a bad idea? even if the aro is a bit larger?