Asain Redtailed Catfish

[Mikeamat0]

I'll add my .2 cents.. it's an artc. They hate the light for one, I noticed you mentioned it's on 24/7. I would highly advise against this, its uncomfortable for the fish, and doesn't simulate real time. As mentioned they can go a while without eating, along with Viktor I wouldn't worry until it hits a month. A fish at that size, looks around 4", isn't going months without eating however, I disagree there. But the fish can very well be settling in still. And if somethings messing with it, as mentioned, it will prolong that period. If it's coming out but hides when you see it, its because it sees you and is scared. Id advise starting off by throwing food in with the lights off and only peeking in the room or standing on the opposite side to see if it's eating. Far as max size, in aquaria don't think we have a member who reported one larger than a foot, they're rarely kept long due to their aggressive nature. In the wild however they have been caught up to a little over 4'. 52" according to fishbase. Of course that's likely an old fish.

Thank you for the input. I keep the lights off at almost all times now. I will say the lights are pretty well dimmed but i did take them off anyway due to advice i recieved. The fish almost never moves, ive seen it a few times move when i am laying in bed at night and than it just goes back to its original spot even without me taking a step out of bed (my beds accross the room). I have mentioned the convict bothered it at first but the convict seems to be scared as hell of this catfish it does hast gone near it since the day after i got the catfish so i wouldnt think its that. I will send a picture of the lights just so you guys can get an idea & of the spot he sits in 24/7. Also will put up the water paremeters later in the day as mentioned when i get the time to do so.

 

[Mikeamat0]

Thank you for the input. I keep the lights off at almost all times now. I will say the lights are pretty well dimmed but i did take them off anyway due to advice i recieved. The fish almost never moves, ive seen it a few times move when i am laying in bed at night and than it just goes back to its original spot even without me taking a step out of bed (my beds accross the room). I have mentioned the convict bothered it at first but the convict seems to be scared as hell of this catfish it does hast gone near it since the day after i got the catfish so i wouldnt think its that. I will send a picture of the lights just so you guys can get an idea & of the spot he sits in 24/7. Also will put up the water paremeters later in the day as mentioned when i get the time to do so.

 

[Mikeamat0]

Hey Mike, I appreciate your not telling me to hike somewhere else and engage in something entirely different and refreshing I too am a bit sorry about how it came out... sighs... I could have been a lot more graceful and said it simpler. Just ain't got it. Your are not guilty that I became sensitized to the subject.

We get a lot of questions from new members and it is 99.9% of the time a tooth-pulling and time-consuming exercise to even start establishing a mere baseline on what might be wrong, if anything, in their tanks and get them to tell their water parameters because (as it eventually turns out) by far and large most usually they never test their water or never use the liquid tests... and often don't want to admit it either. Or even admit their water contains ammonia or nitrite or some other parameter is wrong.

It is also the best practice to have the test kit at home and not run to LFS any time one needs a measurement.

Anyhow, I am looking forward to more info. Meanwhile, I assume you don't exactly know what transpires at nights, or do you? You must be speaking for the day time that the fish doesn't move much.

Is there any damage on it? Fins? Scuff marks?

If the fish started out the fast looking healthy and fed, I'd not worry about a 2 week fast. But something's off and we need to figure out what. The only way for us to remotely attempt make sense of it is to be armed with all the info you can give us.

In anyway would me giving out the tanks settup (everything running it & everything inside as well) be of any help?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Some things may be useful. Like all the ones I have listed above.

The fact that it doesn't move much doesn't bother me as such. What does is that you don't see it feed.

What if it steals convict's feed? What do you give the convict?

Are there any other tankmates?

What was the ARTC fed before you got it?

What feeds have you tried? You said pellet. What kind? What other feeds have you tried? A healthy fish usually can't resist bloodworms but these are not fussy. Frozen fish cut to appropriate size should be taken too along with pellets.

Garlic is often used to arouse appetite in stubborn fish as well as a Vitachem soak.

Could the water it was previously in be vastly different from yours in some respect, like pH, temp, hardness, salinity / TDS, etc.?

As I stated in that list - stability matters. The pH and temp must not sway too much but remain constant.

Have you had ill fish in this tank before you got the ARTC?

More ideas for brainstorming can be found in these two threads:

https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/to-help-you-we-need-a-little-help-please.671346/

https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...ealth-diagnostics-read-before-posting.210102/

BTW, the convict being deathly afraid of the ARTC sounds about right... haha. So ARTC behaves as expected, which is a good sign the fish is not doing too shabby.

 

[moe214]

I was in your position with the tank in my room at one point and will give an experience with the curupira I had, when I first got it, it wouldn't eat at all while I was in the room, took me two months to finally see it eat and that was me peeking in after feeding, literally had to crack the door and peek in to see it, if I was in the room he wouldn't come out of hiding, took six months for that fish to start eating with me in the room. So that being said, this is unlikely, but just to give you an example of what is possible. My old artc wasn't a picky eater at all. It being lazy isn't an issue either. I personally feel the fish can just be settling in still. Again I personally wouldn't worry until after a month I see it hasn't eaten. But if you have other fish in there acting normal it's hard to know why it wouldn't be feeding.

 

[Mikeamat0]

Hey guys sorry i have not been on i have been extremely busy! So to catch up, i ended up switching my tank to sand bottom. I slowly removed gravel while adding sand every other day to try not to mess with my cycle. I also picked up those net bags for filter media and put the gravel in 3 of them so keep some in there for cycle purposes. ANYWAYS it is now a sand bottom with two natural looking rocks. The catfish decided overnight to burrow underneath one of the rocks and make almost liek a little hideout underneath it. He has 100% become more comfortable. I see him out and about at all times of the night and i actually just fed my fish while leaving a few shrimp pellets on the ground and he came out quite a few times scanning the whole bottom of the tank and eating every pellet in sight. I am EXTREMELY happy with how he has been. Thanks for all of your help!

 

[Mikeamat0]

One last post for this thread. Just wanna say thanks! This was my first big post on this website and i gotta say there is many extremely knowledgeable people here. I especially wanna thanks thebiggerthebetter for his advice you seem like a very smart guy with this hobby and im looking forward to your advice in the future! I will keep people updated on my tank and look forward to using this forum. I am going to do a tank setup post and my stock in the 55 gallon. I am also a big streamer/YouTube personality and am looking to start making videos for my hobby. I will be making a video of the move from tanks from my 2cnd floor to the basement because i dont trust a 250 gallon on a second floor. Im from new york but am currently in atlanta for work until monday. Will have an update than! Once again thanks everyone!

 

[Fishman Dave]

Just read through your post. Great to hear that he is settling in. One thing , as you are finding, when young the artc loves to be hidden. The more hidden he can be in his cave the better.
As daft as it sounds one of the good foods to feed when young is flake food. As long as the flow gets them to the bottom and not all into the filter, he will love searching them out in the dark n with a red light you can see his whiskers going crazy.
sounds like your gonna have plenty to keep us updated with as he grows, keep us up to date!

 

[justarn]

Great to read through this thread, glad he started eating. Personally I would have tried cut mussel and shrimp first, fish often don't take pellets straight away, you've basically pellet trained him from word go lol.