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So you want to keep a RTC (Red Tailed Catfish)?

The crayfish and minnows all come from a spring fed pond near my house. Typically i have enough on hand in extra tanks for both my fishing needs and for all feeding purposes. Normally i house them for about 2 weeks before i will feed my fish any of them. Gives them a bit of time to cleanse anything from them they may have picked up in the wild. I am pretty careful about that sort of thing, and it has kept my feeding expenses down to a can of flakes and pellets every few months just to feed the minnows and crayfish
 
I am pretty picky like that, i won't even eat fish from anywhere that isn't spring fed myself, i do not keep any fish caught in a non springfed body of water or buy any store or farm fish as i cannot verify the water quality they come from.
Basically if i don't feel safe eating it, i won't give it to my fish. I have been like that since eating some trout anout 12 years ago that had rather high levels of mercury and lead in it. Was quite ill from it
 
Betta132 said:
I really, really hope you're kidding.
First, redtail catfish are not, by nature, active fish. They are catfish. They sit. That's what they're supposed to do.
Second, there are many pathogens present in the aquarium trade that aquarium fish have built up a resistance to, but wild fish have not. Introducing a fish into the river releases those pathogens, putting the native fish in danger.
Third, a redtail catfish is a very large fish with a large impact on the environment. A five-foot-long redtail cat will eat hundreds of pounds of fish in its life, and if released into a river that is not suited to it, it can strip a river bare of fish.
Fourth, if someone else is dumb enough to release a redtail of the opposite sex into the same stretch of river and they breed, you've just allowed a population of large, destructive, nonnative fish to establish itself.
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It only takes one, to bring the entire system crashing down. This is a case in point.
 
Catfish are actually alot more active than you would think. They like it when it is darker out and will readily hunt down minnows and crayfish with ease. In bright light situations they will basically stay dormant, low light and darkness are when they are most active and will chase down their supper. I have been a fisherman since introduced to it at age 4, and got my first catfish at age 9. So for the past 29 years of fishing and 24 years of owning various breeds of catfish. I can say in my experiance this has been the case for pretty much all catfish i have caught or have owned personally.
As for releasing exotic species that is not something i would ever do, me and my kids spend alot of time fishing and enough people already overfish, pollute and release bait and other fish not native to the area. Its not something i myself would do as it has huge ecological impacts such as the case of the round goby, rusty crayfish and eurasian ruffe etc etc etc.
As for feeding them wild minnows and crayfish, like i said i only get them from spring fed sources and house them for 2 weeks to detox and check for infections etc etc.
i have had issues with store and farm bought feeders, i have not had any issues with the ones i get myself. And have been doing it for the past 10 years
 
Not sure if the repost was aimed at me, but if so then you should take the time to read what i wrote since none of the repost actually applies to anything i myself do or have done. And the part about redtail catfish or any catfish for that matter being an inactive species is also entirely false. They will and do hunt for food primarily in low light/no light situations every day
 
Reanna said:
My rtc decided to eat my Texas and hasn't been able to swallow it. Can anyone suggest what I should do

View attachment 1207392
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Looks like he's doing just fine? Lol
You'll see, if you haven't already.
They can eat amazingly large things which is why they grow at an alarming rate.
If you plan to keep other fish with aggressive catfish make sure they're expendable because eventually they will die.
 
^Agreed and as long as the cichlid went down head first then it is probably long gone and in the belly by now lol.
 
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