I have always wanted an RTC for a very long time, but because when I first initially wanted it, the prices were so high that I could not afford it. But now that time has passed, their prices have gone down and they are actually affordable by my wallet's standards.
Anyways, I have kept my fair share of freshwater monsters in the past. Well because I live in Thailand, the native fish here are much cheaper than imported species. I woulda kept a Payara if they were cheap, but they werent so I kept a Giant Snakehead for a few years until my mom's friend brought it from me because he wanted to rid some Tilapia that have been breeding in his koi pond (where the koi are much larger than the Channa). The funny thing was that I trained that Channa to accept pellet food so you were looking at a channa that didnt care about fisht that could fit into it's mouth. He was very confused when he saw that snakey feeding along with Carp.
Anyways, my history with Catfish keeping is very limited. In fact, you can probably count the species that I have kept in one hand. and I will list them here.
Pangasius Gigas (2)
Pangasius Sanitwongsei (2)
Clarias ??? (3)
All of these fish I have kept them with koi carp in a pond which is 4m x 3m and 1m deep. All these 3 species fed very well on pellet food, and the 2 Gigas and 2 Sanitwongseis formed a shoal together! They ended up growing to over 70cm each and I had to get rid of them. Fortunately, I knew a restauraunt owner and he opted to take them off of me. NO! HE DID NOT COOK THEM! He also has a koi pond, but his is something like 20m x 15m and very deep, so I figured they would be happy in there with all the space to swim.
I just had to give them away because one day, I went to feed them and the smallest gigas shot straight out of the pond onto dry land because he was in such a hurry to beat the koi to the food (and he usually does! except this time he overshot the finish line). Because of that, I didnt want to come to my pond one day only to find that one of the Pangasius has jumped out and seriously injured itself/died. So for much concern of the safety of the fish, I decided that they need a new home. And they seem to be happy there. I went to the restauraunt the other day and all four of them seem are still shoaling together, and they seem to also have some more smaller members of other species joining the shoal.
As for the Clarias, they ate anything I give to them. They are so used to pellets that it takes them a while to realise that the prawns i tossed in as a treat were very much edible.
Anyways, I have been doing a lot of readin specifically on the red tail. I know the massive size they can attain. Although not as big as the pangasius, but still considerably big. I woulda still kept the pangasiuses if I had much more space in the pond. They are ALWAYS moving, and fast too. Darting around from one end of the pond to the other. But seeing reports and other people's RTC's, I figure that it doesnt swim too much and 4m x 3m would be adequate space for them to live a full life.
Just the question of whether the koi will be fine with the RTC in there. The koi are 4 years old and 50 cm. Although I notice in my years of fishkeeping that carp's growth seem to be more restricted to the size of it's environment than catfish. Those 4 pangasius I had, yeah they outgrew the koi in no time at all.
I know the cost of the fish and the cost of feeding it and etc. If they are dangerous to the koi, I would consider using a seperator net and give the redtail its own space when it gets big enough.
Am I ready?
Anyways, I have kept my fair share of freshwater monsters in the past. Well because I live in Thailand, the native fish here are much cheaper than imported species. I woulda kept a Payara if they were cheap, but they werent so I kept a Giant Snakehead for a few years until my mom's friend brought it from me because he wanted to rid some Tilapia that have been breeding in his koi pond (where the koi are much larger than the Channa). The funny thing was that I trained that Channa to accept pellet food so you were looking at a channa that didnt care about fisht that could fit into it's mouth. He was very confused when he saw that snakey feeding along with Carp.
Anyways, my history with Catfish keeping is very limited. In fact, you can probably count the species that I have kept in one hand. and I will list them here.
Pangasius Gigas (2)
Pangasius Sanitwongsei (2)
Clarias ??? (3)
All of these fish I have kept them with koi carp in a pond which is 4m x 3m and 1m deep. All these 3 species fed very well on pellet food, and the 2 Gigas and 2 Sanitwongseis formed a shoal together! They ended up growing to over 70cm each and I had to get rid of them. Fortunately, I knew a restauraunt owner and he opted to take them off of me. NO! HE DID NOT COOK THEM! He also has a koi pond, but his is something like 20m x 15m and very deep, so I figured they would be happy in there with all the space to swim.
I just had to give them away because one day, I went to feed them and the smallest gigas shot straight out of the pond onto dry land because he was in such a hurry to beat the koi to the food (and he usually does! except this time he overshot the finish line). Because of that, I didnt want to come to my pond one day only to find that one of the Pangasius has jumped out and seriously injured itself/died. So for much concern of the safety of the fish, I decided that they need a new home. And they seem to be happy there. I went to the restauraunt the other day and all four of them seem are still shoaling together, and they seem to also have some more smaller members of other species joining the shoal.
As for the Clarias, they ate anything I give to them. They are so used to pellets that it takes them a while to realise that the prawns i tossed in as a treat were very much edible.
Anyways, I have been doing a lot of readin specifically on the red tail. I know the massive size they can attain. Although not as big as the pangasius, but still considerably big. I woulda still kept the pangasiuses if I had much more space in the pond. They are ALWAYS moving, and fast too. Darting around from one end of the pond to the other. But seeing reports and other people's RTC's, I figure that it doesnt swim too much and 4m x 3m would be adequate space for them to live a full life.
Just the question of whether the koi will be fine with the RTC in there. The koi are 4 years old and 50 cm. Although I notice in my years of fishkeeping that carp's growth seem to be more restricted to the size of it's environment than catfish. Those 4 pangasius I had, yeah they outgrew the koi in no time at all.
I know the cost of the fish and the cost of feeding it and etc. If they are dangerous to the koi, I would consider using a seperator net and give the redtail its own space when it gets big enough.
Am I ready?
