Baby red tail cat ate my pleco...

[Dasmopar]

My son is in scouts and one of his projects is to take care of a aquarium for 30 days. This got me all fired up on my tank again so I dumped my native fish back into a pond and started cleaning up the tank. (220 gal) It was also running as a cold water tank so heating it again. Can't wait for the electric bill. lol So we went fish shopping which is one of my favorite things to do. I make a tour of town to hit up all the fish stores. One LFS had RTC's for 30 dollars and they look to be about 6". I have never had a RTC before but have always wanted one so I jumped on one of the 2 that didn't have gill curl. We also picked up two Oscars, 1 Flowerhorn, 6 cory cats, one common plecostomus, and one less common pleco that was like 15 bucks and 3" long.

Oscar are eating right away and the RTC is warming up to me. he is not eating out of my hand yet but he is getting close. I think I was over feeding him Beef Heart though because he was puking his dinner back up. So we came up with a agrement on how much he can eat without puking it back up. All was good.... Two nights ago I come home from work and the RTC is searching around so I figure he wants some food. I break off his food and give it to him and he takes before the Oscars get a shot at it. So I'm working on other stuff when i notice the RTC swimming nose down into the rocks and acting funny. I go over to the tank to check it out and here he has my fancy pleco in his mouth tail first! I'm think hey let that pleco and just as I thought it the pleco popped free and took off like a rocket ship away from the RTC. The RTC gave chase and caught the pleco again. He still has the pleco tail first and the pleco's head it nearly as wide as RTC's mouth. He is ripping and thrashing trying to get this pleco down. This goes on for about 20 min. when he spits it out and gets it by the head and down it goes. lol

Now he has kept it down and is even eating his beef heart but his gut is huge! This brings me to the reason I started this thread. Can he pass those pleco bones through or will he puke them up? A pleco skull is going to hurt coming out either direction I would think.

At this point the RTC is clear and free to eat anything in the tank he wants. If he ends up being the only fish in there thats fine by me. He is going to be a treat to watch grow and become a Monster.

 

[Oddball]

They're digestive system is amazing. Specimens have been caught with nearly fully dissolved turtles and caimen in their stomachs. In all likelihood, your RTC will be able to properly digest the pleco. I wouldn't try feeding it again until its gut flattens back out though. The chances are goo he'll regurgitate the pleco if you feed him too early. That decaying bioball will foul your tank and become a risk to all the inhabitants. Stomach acids in the stomach are OK. In the water column, not so good.

Now, all you have to do is figure out what you'll do when that cat outgrows your tank in about 9 months. Also, decide on new tankmates since everything on your list will become catfood in a very short time.

 

[greenbud]

both my tsn and rtc have eaten plecos and been just fine

 

[Hondacrx2]

They're digestive system is amazing. Specimens have been caught with nearly fully dissolved turtles and caimen in their stomachs. In all likelihood, your RTC will be able to properly digest the pleco. I wouldn't try feeding it again until its gut flattens back out though. The chances are goo he'll regurgitate the pleco if you feed him too early. That decaying bioball will foul your tank and become a risk to all the inhabitants. Stomach acids in the stomach are OK. In the water column, not so good.

Now, all you have to do is figure out what you'll do when that cat outgrows your tank in about 9 months. Also, decide on new tankmates since everything on your list will become catfood in a very short time.

View attachment 743073

x2^^^^

You don't jump on rtc. Or they will jump on you and win. ( i.e. they need to be planned for)


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[Dasmopar]

This is why I didn't want to make a post. No matter what you have a RTC in its to small and everyone on here wants to make sure they tell you about it. When the time comes I will do what needs to be done. For now a 24" wide tank will be fine for him. If this fish is over 24" in 9 months I will eat my own shoe.

I know a guy who has had a RTC for something like 10yrs and it is 20" long. His job moves him around alot and he dumps everything when he has to move except for his RTC as it is more of a family pet than a fish. I know how fast these guys can grow and how big they can get. I have never had one before because my biggest tank for many years was a 75 gal. and at one time I had like 650 gals up and running in my house breeding Chiclids. I told the wife if I got one big tank I would get rid of all the smaller tanks and so here we are with a 220 set up and nothing really cool in it. Enter the RTC.

I went to the meat market and scored a Talapia fillet for him. I diced it up into 1/4" cubes and put most of it in the freezer. I will wait for him to use up that pleco before I start feeding him again. Every time he has puked his food up it has been a big water change as soon as I noticed the food. Thanks for the advice. I'm not so worried about that pleco being in there now.

 

[snowhnter]

Not trying to say you're wrong but a 10 year old RTC and only 20" sounds fishy to me. I have had and still have RTC. My current one is 20" and just turned a year old. Not power feeding b/c I don't believe it to be healthy for the cat. I feed mine once every 2 or 3 days and not so much that its gut is bulging but enough so that it is fed. A 10 year old 20" RTC sound like something must be wrong. If possible I would like to see a few pics. If it is some kind of a hybrid and we could get a RTC to stay at 20" that would be great. Good luck with your first RTC and please keep us posted when you upgrade tanks. I am currently in the design phase for mine. Planning on a 12x4x3, this should hold my monsters till the kids move out and I can build the biggun.

 

[greenbud]

Not trying to say you're wrong but a 10 year old RTC and only 20" sounds fishy to me. I have had and still have RTC. My current one is 20" and just turned a year old. Not power feeding b/c I don't believe it to be healthy for the cat. I feed mine once every 2 or 3 days and not so much that its gut is bulging but enough so that it is fed. A 10 year old 20" RTC sound like something must be wrong. If possible I would like to see a few pics. If it is some kind of a hybrid and we could get a RTC to stay at 20" that would be great. Good luck with your first RTC and please keep us posted when you upgrade tanks. I am currently in the design phase for mine. Planning on a 12x4x3, this should hold my monsters till the kids move out and I can build the biggun.

much agree every documented rtc of tsn hits 18inch in a year or less including my own in my sig.

And on a side note there are claims of rtcs stunted when young that do not make it much past 3 ft. but for a normally 5 to 6ft fish to get that stunted well yah you know

 

[aquaman95]

Phony


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[Bderick67]

You could try not doing any water changes. Maybe a filthy cesspool will stunt it's growth.

 

[jclyde13]

This is why I didn't want to make a post. No matter what you have a RTC in its to small and everyone on here wants to make sure they tell you about it. When the time comes I will do what needs to be done. For now a 24" wide tank will be fine for him. If this fish is over 24" in 9 months I will eat my own shoe.

I know a guy who has had a RTC for something like 10yrs and it is 20" long. His job moves him around alot and he dumps everything when he has to move except for his RTC as it is more of a family pet than a fish. I know how fast these guys can grow and how big they can get. I have never had one before because my biggest tank for many years was a 75 gal. and at one time I had like 650 gals up and running in my house breeding Chiclids. I told the wife if I got one big tank I would get rid of all the smaller tanks and so here we are with a 220 set up and nothing really cool in it. Enter the RTC.

I went to the meat market and scored a Talapia fillet for him. I diced it up into 1/4" cubes and put most of it in the freezer. I will wait for him to use up that pleco before I start feeding him again. Every time he has puked his food up it has been a big water change as soon as I noticed the food. Thanks for the advice. I'm not so worried about that pleco being in there now.

1) Keeping fish small is not rocket science: give them an insufficient amount/type of food and keep the water changes to a minimum; maybe just skip the water changes altogether and only add new water when the old water evaporates.

2) I don't think Oddball ever said it would be 24" in 9 months, although I don't think that would be too unreasonable, considering it's just a little over 2" per month *(it would depend on how it is cared for), but in any case, just because the length of a fish hasn't yet matched that of your tank's width doesn't necessarily mean the tank is large enough, especially for large cats. I would be sure to have it in a larger tank at least by the time it reachs 18".