Hand feeding, and petting catfish

[aeri]

not related to catfish
but my jardini and clown knife is pettable

 

[necrocanis]

wow, that's cool, my old clown knife(recently eaten) would rather tear into me than to let me pet it. Too bad my rtc thought he was tasty

 

[holmes14]

The gulpers are sopposed to like the current allot and you can tell he likes to play in it. i just wasnt sure if your soposed to leave it on all the time or turn it off once in a while.

 

[Bgonz]

I cant believe no one posted any pics I have hundreds of cool shots but my computer isnt accepting any discs ???? SO............ I just ran downstairs and snapped a few quickies

My Big RTC is gentle as anything and ALWAYS shoots right to the top whenever I enter the room. His jacuzzi is only 24" deep and he is about 31" long so he has a little trouble coming staight up My smaller big guy is nearing 24" and he is an animal !!!! Whenever I approach his tank he shoots to the top and all I see is his belly. Whenever food or my hand enters the tank he just inhales, he's really quite aggressive. He can be pet also but I think he thinks he's fighting not playing, he's always trying to bit rather than play. I guess you can say I wrestle him



Post some pics guys............





bob

 

[Mystus Redtail]

Awesome, is there a thread out there on how to properly go about training them to hand feed?? My tsn and mrtc are very small, so I figure I'll start as soon as possible.

 

[Bgonz]

Awesome, is there a thread out there on how to properly go about training them to hand feed?? My tsn and mrtc are very small, so I figure I'll start as soon as possible.

I dont think much "training" is involved just persistance. Just walk up to the tank and let a piece of shrimp touch the water then pull it out. Within seconds your catfishes whiskers should be twitching Do that a few times then feed him a small piece. Repeat a few times a day and within a couple days/weeks he'll get the hint thats where the food comes from. I think the most important factor is the fish has to feel secure. Anytime I kept a RTC with other fish they always seemed a little reluctant. They would hand feed but not as gentle and nice as one kept alone. I have a 10" RTC that was hand feeding nicely at 5". He has his own 150 and no one to compete against for food so he is very mellow. I walk up to the tank and he automatically goes to the same corner and begs for food.......Every time !!!! RTC's seem to enjoy human interaction, some more than others but most are awesome pets. I think the bigger they get the slower/mellower they become and the belly rubbing becomes easy. Try rubbing a 6" RTC 's belly........It aint happinin.



Grab some shrimp and get practicing !!!!!!





bob

 

[Mystus Redtail]

Right on, I'll pick some up on the way home from work today!

 

[cullens089]

since the day i first got my rtc he let me hand feed and pet and then i got my tsn and he would rather i never put my hand in the tank or he would go insane is now gettin used to being handfeed and now my marble lets me pet and handfeed also

 

[alex2158]

i looked on you tube for links of rtc or rtc X tsn or tsn or just catfish and nothing popped up sbut it is truely awsome how humans can interact with these fish its truely incredible in my eyes

 

[AttackFish]

I'm falling in love with RTC's and TSN's more and more. I want an RTC or two extremely bad.
Going to go look at the rubbermaid pond sizes at Homedepot tommorow. :
My bro moved out so I've got a whole room open. Its upstairs, but I'm sure it could handle the weight as its had alot of heavy stuff in there before...