Free huge Raphael at Petco! OMG OMG OMG

I have to intentionally slow my fingers down to type this. A dream just came true. I walked into Petco to see how deformed the Oscars are these days and in their KOI (wtf) tank was a behemoth raphael catfish. I asked how much, they said, "Well, he's adoption, so usually two or three dollars." I about crapped myself. Then the lady gets a NET (wtf) and tries to pry him out of his spot. At this point I knew it was time to step in. I offered to grab him by hand, assuring her my hands were clean. She thought about it for a moment, but let me get him. He was spreading his pectoral spines so hard I wondered if it was rigor-mortis or something. She put some food in there and he actually moved ( the tank was at 71ºF (wtf), so I was expecting him to be in a state of turpor). Once he emerged from his spot, I got a hand on him, we threw him into a bucket and I brought him home. She gave him to me for free, stating I seemed to know what I was doing and she was happy he would be going into a bigger tank. So he sat in a bucket while I threw together a 30gal quarantine tank by the seat of my pants. Then I got the pictures, acclimated him in the bucket and moved him into his own tank. He never croaked(ribbit, whatever you want to call that sound), which was kind of disappointing. But I wouldn't be making much of a fuss if I just got thawed, either.

Yeah, his spines show definite seasons of growth and stunting. This guy has been passed around for awhile. I hope I can provide a good retirement for him.










So is there anything special I should do for my freshly thawed buddy? I'm thinking he's probably been through worse, but are there general raphael precautions? He's got a third of the tank blacked out with cave work so he's super comfy.

WOOT!

I've got him at 75º now, with some java moss to help keep things stable and an Aquaclear 500 I just seeded. He even ate some Cichlid Attack and ColorBits overnight. I plan to bring him up to 84º over the next week or two. Once he's there for awhile, I'll probably eventually bring him back down to 79ºF for the community tank, but that's way out there.

I'm going to try breeding her with my littler guy from my 55g. If I have the genders right and the dice land in my favor.

Looks to be about six inches of body length. But she's so thick!