How many gallons would it take to house 2 rtc. Or 1 rtc a shovel nose and a couple gulpers? Anyone know im not saying imma do it but i have thought about it. So what are your thoughts about it. And how many gallons would it take. I knw it would take a ton.
Gallon question
- Thread starter fishy12
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These cats easily attain a length of 5 ft and a weight of well over 100lbs. It would take a heavily filtered (as in over-filtered) system to sustain one in a 500gal. These are messy-eating, high-metabolic, and high DO requiring riverine cats. Not to mention that their system would have to stand up to substantial wall ramming as the cats chase after food or just freak out from a sudden movement/light change.
But the only thing is i want a good veiw of the fish....And im not rlly sure how to do this... If i should do a over top veiw or like have it like a aquarium....I like the aquarium idea. But the over veiw wld give better view...Ideas.
8x16x4feet would be good. I would def add viewing windows on the front. gulpers may end up being food
The RTC gets to 4 feet plus, gulpers only reach 15 inches, max. Gulpers would be dinner, for sure. The photo you saw may not have been a full-grown RTC, which would probably work, but he's going to be full-grown fairly quickly, and the gulpers wouldn't have a chance.
As for side-viewing, I'm not sure how much it really matters with catfish. I don't mind not having a window, and I have Pacu in my pond, as well. If you look at my gallery, you'll see photos of my fish, and you can see the whole fish -- not just the top. When the fish is eight feet away from you, you're going to be able to see the whole thing -- if you were standing right over him, obviously, you'd only be able to see the top.
Oh, and as for the original question, I'd say a pond for an RTC and TSN, alone, would need to be about 1500 gallons, and you'd want as big of a footprint as you have room for. Keep in mind that you'll need to filter this with at least eight times volume, so 12,000 gallons per hour -- nothing to sneeze at when it comes to the electric bill, I assure you. I have 12,000 gph in my pond, and it's only 1,000 gallons, or somewhere around that. Also, you'll need a filter sized appropriately -- lots of room for biomedia, as well as mechanical filtration. We built ours into the pond's design in order to make it large enough.
I guess what I'm getting to is there's more than figuring out gallonage when you're planning a pond for big messy fish like these guys, so definitely don't forget to take everything into account.
As for side-viewing, I'm not sure how much it really matters with catfish. I don't mind not having a window, and I have Pacu in my pond, as well. If you look at my gallery, you'll see photos of my fish, and you can see the whole fish -- not just the top. When the fish is eight feet away from you, you're going to be able to see the whole thing -- if you were standing right over him, obviously, you'd only be able to see the top.
Oh, and as for the original question, I'd say a pond for an RTC and TSN, alone, would need to be about 1500 gallons, and you'd want as big of a footprint as you have room for. Keep in mind that you'll need to filter this with at least eight times volume, so 12,000 gallons per hour -- nothing to sneeze at when it comes to the electric bill, I assure you. I have 12,000 gph in my pond, and it's only 1,000 gallons, or somewhere around that. Also, you'll need a filter sized appropriately -- lots of room for biomedia, as well as mechanical filtration. We built ours into the pond's design in order to make it large enough.
I guess what I'm getting to is there's more than figuring out gallonage when you're planning a pond for big messy fish like these guys, so definitely don't forget to take everything into account.
If you did plants, you'd have to do very, very strong lighting to reach three feet down. Also, there's a good chance the cats would just tear them out of the substrate as they moved. If you take a look at my gallery, you'll see the 50 gallon freshwater refugium we made so that we get the benefits of some plants in a setup where plants are almost impossible. Honestly, we have so many tanks running that I'm not even sure how much just the pond costs in electrical. I'd venture at least a couple of bucks a day, all by itself. I know that the bill jumped up pretty high when we put the new pumps in, but I don't remember the actual amount. At this point, we probably pay more out in electricity and water for the fish than for ourselves, but, as I said, that's not entirely the pond's fault.
BTW, have you ever seen one of these guys at full size? If not, I'd recommend you find a public aquarium with an Amazon exhibit. It's hard to get a handle on what you're getting yourself into until you've really seen an adult specimen up close!
BTW, have you ever seen one of these guys at full size? If not, I'd recommend you find a public aquarium with an Amazon exhibit. It's hard to get a handle on what you're getting yourself into until you've really seen an adult specimen up close!