Update of the kitties.

[necrocanis]

OH and if you're gonna do live bro set up a quarantine tank. Make sure it has very good water quality. Keep the feeders seperated in there for two weeks and feed them lots of frozen blood worms to fatten them up and treat them with medication to get rid of any sickies. I use to do this because I believe these fish are predators and if you can't watch them hunt every now and then it's just not as fun to keep them, but I would never feed mine some straight from the lfs. I always fatten for a few weeks or months!!! Thinking about getting some for my new tank and after I have fattened them up putting them in with my large Suncats and see what they do lol.

 

[MonsterMinis]

Ill give it a try, the TSN so far went a week without eating and was getting skinny, stomach sunken and even his skull was getting thin. I was worried at that point and added live, and have gotten him bulked up again though hes very slender. Ill try fasting them again for a few days. and i always keep bloodowrms and krill in the freezer they are great foods to have on hand for finicky eaters. and I always QT my feeders. I figure now that the RTC eats massivore hed teach the TSN but hes very stubborn. Ill skip a live food regime and see how it goes.

BTW i bought the TSN as a "hybrid" but so far he just looks TSN. I know my lfs brought him in as one as well, so it wasnt just a "guess" ect.

 

[necrocanis]

Ill give it a try, the TSN so far went a week without eating and was getting skinny, stomach sunken and even his skull was getting thin. I was worried at that point and added live, and have gotten him bulked up again though hes very slender. Ill try fasting them again for a few days. and i always keep bloodowrms and krill in the freezer they are great foods to have on hand for finicky eaters. and I always QT my feeders. I figure now that the RTC eats massivore hed teach the TSN but hes very stubborn. Ill skip a live food regime and see how it goes.

BTW i bought the TSN as a "hybrid" but so far he just looks TSN. I know my lfs brought him in as one as well, so it wasnt just a "guess" ect.

Yeah you're on the money to think he is 100% TSN. I use to have my lfs order in catfish that were on their list and I never knew what I would get lol. They ordered me a niger and I got a marble, they ordered me a hybrid rtc and I got a tsn, ect. One time they ordered me a black shark catfish, and I got a hifin shark lol

 

[MonsterMinis]

2 weeks of fasting almost too the day now and he finally took some frozen bloodworms.. not great.. but at least he's eating.


Looking forward to the pattern he's developing any ideas on what type of TSN he is?



Moe.. he's just a piggy.

 

[MonsterMinis]

And I think we're going to go with the 12' 30" deep Intex meta frame pool for these guys. at least until I can actually build anything, and gonna invest in a patch kit same day we buy the pool.

The shape of the TSN's fins and colors make me think he's first one on the second picture? P. Reticulatum possibly?

 

[MonsterMinis]

I swear.. every time I complaine about not being able to find something...



Found this guy the other day in a lil' tank at the LFS he wasn't there long at all.. and he was just waaay to cute! Hoping he turns out to be a stunner! so far hes eating anything and everything i put in the tank.. and he's less then 2"!!! Hopefully he'll put on a few inches in the next couple weeks.... hoping to close on our house before x-mas.. so he should be "safe" with my daughters comm fish until then... if not I have a spare. the big guys can then get a pool.. and this lil' guy can have a 56 all to himself until he gets big enough to play with the others.

 

[necrocanis]

Not sure on what species tsn you have, but doesn't look to be fasciatum to me. You may have a different species. keep us updated on how he does. Glad to hear he finally took some non live foods. At this size he should be doing chunks of shrimp and fish fillets also.

 

[MonsterMinis]

Well he was spitting bloodworms after eating them.. and was getting really scrawny again so he got some feeders.. not a big deal.. I keep a tank full for the gar so a few of the smaller ones went in with the cats. krill didn't work again either... he'll attack it but spit it out almost immediately, but the RTC just moves in and cleans up. I make sure the RTC is pretty full before i try other foods for the TSN... otherwise the RTC wants the good stuff.

 

[MonsterMinis]

Figured I'de do an update though I odn't have any pics yet. we close don the house, and moved most our stuff.. except the fish... thankfully my dad ( who got me started with tanks to begin with a a kid..) has been feeding and helping take care of the tanks since the weather here got pretty yikky.. and some help backed out on us... ( not happy but whatcha gonna do? )

Had a freak occurance.. as I had sand.. and then a mass of floating plants in the TSN and RTCs tank... well someone went bonkers... and tore the plants up... no biggy, except it clogged the filter and wasn't discovered until the next day... during that time the filter wasn't running but a tiny trickle... and the temperature due to being in a basement and the flow severely lowered caused the temp to drop inot i'm assumeing the low 60's or even 50's... Moe the RTC never pulled threw... The TSN miraculousely made it... his whiskers where compleately ammonia burned off, and he was swimming oddly.. He's doing great now and recovering excellently... just very sad Moe was killed by a freak thing.

the rtc/tsn hybrid is growing fast and has been moved into the 56 ( after some major water changes and some adjustments, and the TSN was moved into the 75 with my young LNG gar)

The silver lining if i might find one is the TSN now eats krill like nobodys business and has bulked up nicely, along with healing up amazingly, he still hold sno white stripeing and is developing nice spots on his head.. his odd pattern hasn't changed much yet, but he has a deffinate stripe down his back which my husband thinks is neat.

 

[MonsterMinis]

Got the 56 finally moved.. and managed to snap a few pictures of the hybrid while he was out, he's either "sharking" the tank or hiding. He's really turning inot a stunning fish.. The TSN is doing great his whiskers are almost 100% and he's also turnign into a real beauty. Can't wait to start the basement pond.