RTC bouncing off the walls..literally

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fetto

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 7, 2011
83
0
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Northern NJ
Moved my oscar and RTC into their new 75 gal a few weeks ago. Hes about 16" and at first I thought he was just having fun, being able to swim around and have some room

But lately I notice, he will just be laying there, and suddenly, like hes building up momentum, will just pickup and dart across the tank. In his travels, he will do loop de loops and roll over and spin across the tank like a drill. And he does this from time to time . Never seen this before.

Im just curious as this behavior hasnt been visible before. The other day one of my filters broke down while i was at work, and when I got home, the tank was a milky white color, and i noticed his right side gill was starting to curl, and he was huffing and puffing, So i did a 50% water change, and purchased a fluval 406 and set that up. Overnight the water cleared up, but hes still missle spinning and doing backflips.. Every now and then he'll just dart across the tank and go head first into teh tank, shake it off and do it on the other side

And before anyone says a 75 is tiny for a RTC, im fully aware of this, but for his current size he is ok.

He also seems like hes eating less. Food seems to just float in the tank, like because the75 is taller then his old tank, hes unaware the foods up there
 
Your RTC probably feels constricted in such a small tank and is stressed out causing him to act eradically. A RTC of 16 inches should have at the least a 150 gal. and thats atleast man... I hate small tank comments but this one is needed. He could grow to 3 feet man....
 
arowanaryan said:
Your RTC probably feels constricted in such a small tank and is stressed out causing him to act eradically. A RTC of 16 inches should have at the least a 150 gal. and thats atleast man... I hate small tank comments but this one is needed. He could grow to 3 feet man....
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Im FULLY aware of this. and for 9 months at living in a 40 gal he never had an issue. So I know hes happy in his larger tank. I dont think its an issue of a small tank, or feeling confined. (right now) If it was small and he was feeling confined, he wouldnt be doing red barren loop de loops in the tank. its like hes happy and enjoying himself, but has me confused.

Ive never seen a catfish do a barrel roll before at high speeds
 
at 16 inches...if he gets spooked, he can go through the glass of the tank...I strongly suggest changing him out for a medium sized catfish so your oscar and you have a more peaceful life :)
 
ecoli73 said:
at 16 inches...if he gets spooked, he can go through the glass of the tank...I strongly suggest changing him out for a medium sized catfish so your oscar and you have a more peaceful life :)
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Thanks for your advice. He should be ok right now..but any idea on this behavior?

Im not questioning the size of him and his tank size, im questioning his warthog barrel rolls and red barren loop de loops.

Since monday he has been off on his appetite lately, but still as playful as ever, as theres no issues at night, when the oscar sleeps laying ontop of him and he doesnt mind it

And as far as trading him in, I just couldnt do that. Hes my homeboy. Since ive had him, ive seen about 2 dozen large RTCs in petstores, and mine is by FAAAR the best looking and healthiest out of all of them. I take care of these guys like they were my children
 
arowanaryan said:
dude hes longer then the tank is wide isnt he?
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75 gal is 18 inches wide. When he was in the 40, he had to lay long ways, as the 12" width of the tank was not good for him, so he looked larger, made tank look smaller

Now he has NOOOOOOOOO problems laying from to back, and looks super tiny in his larger tank.

Picture from 2 weeks ago when he was first moved into his tank. and YES they get fed feeders once a week, and NO i wont stop feeding them goldfish, although they do get a balanced diet of beef, krill, pelets as well

http://i.imgur.com/0ctu2.jpg
 
fetto said:
Thanks for your advice. He should be ok right now..but any idea on this behavior?

Im not questioning the size of him and his tank size, im questioning his warthog barrel rolls and red barren loop de loops.

Since monday he has been off on his appetite lately, but still as playful as ever, as theres no issues at night, when the oscar sleeps laying ontop of him and he doesnt mind it

And as far as trading him in, I just couldnt do that. Hes my homeboy. Since ive had him, ive seen about 2 dozen large RTCs in petstores, and mine is by FAAAR the best looking and healthiest out of all of them. I take care of these guys like they were my children
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So let me get this straight your gonna make your kids live in a closet till they move out!

Seriously the issue with your fish is very much the small tank that it is in.

You may not want to hear what people will say or want to say to you, but you asked and so they will answer.

Without going into a long drawn out explanation of what happens to a fish physiologically when they stunt I simply did a google search and post it here for you.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=the+p...s=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Without a doubt the issue is the tank size. It does not take much for issues to occur with fish when they are raised in tanks that are far to small for them. Now imagine the mental aspect that is playing out with the fish. I personally think that some fish are dumber than a sack of hammers while other fish are full of smarts and intelligence.

I also know that when a fish begins to get stressed out by it's environment there can be once dormant health issues that now become active because of the stress. Also a stressed fish can and will begin to do very strange things.

I also believe that stunting a fish will mess with it's motor function.
 
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