Having trouble keeping two RTC's together.

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B

Bgonz

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 25, 2006
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Monroe twp NJ
As some of you may know i've been attempting to keep 2 RTC's together in my 265 gallon tank for a few months now. It started off pretty rocky with one litterly swallowing the other when they were about 3.5-4" .I got him to spit him out and things have been ok since. One has always been slightly larger, and he is the overly aggressive one. They started out at 3" and 3.5" and now are about 8" and 10". I thought all was cool until recently both the RTC's had some messed up whiskers, Not bad water messed up but cut up looking. Also my TSN of equal size has been having some nasty scrapes on his head ??? Well tonite i think i found out why. During their feeding time, the larger of the two RTC's tried yet again to EAT the slightly smaller one :WHOA: They wrestled around for about 2-3 minutes putting a world of hurting on each other. Its becoming pretty obvious that this project will fail. My questions are.....Should i seperate the two and grow the smaller one faster and try this again ??? Will/should the larger guy back off if he's no longer the bigger of the two ??? I get the impression my smaller guy is not very aggressive at all, but the big guy has an attitude problem for sure.


Any suggestions ??? I'm almost ready to introduce my marble cat into the mix, that should be interesting to say the least.

I've seen RTC's kept together before, so it should be possible.... right ???? Anyone done it ???? Know of anyone who has ???

I think for now i'll catch the big guy and let him live in the sump for a few days. Kinda like being in solitarey confinement. :D



bob
 
yeah, definitely separate them and power feed the smaller one to catch up his size to your other RTC.

Then try it again.

Good luck bob!
 
seems like they are agressive like this at a smaller size. Is there decorations in your tank that might cause the larger one to setup and defend a territory? If so try seperating them till they are both larger. Once they are about equal size put them in a tank together with no decorations. No territory to dispute plus they mellow out once their growth slows. Be carefull to of your marble catfish. I had one that was very agressive. He killed two fish larger than himself after introduced in the new tank. I had to put him down for fear of losing all of my fish
 
Personally I would only keep ONE huge predatory catfish in a tank your size, yes it's quite big, but for the territorial aggression and type of fish you have it's only big enough for one. IMO intoducing a Perrunichthys perruno would be a mistake also. At different times I've had a 24" perruno and a 31.5" rtc and the perruno was far more aggressive, I would agree with neocrocanis on that for sure.
 
definately split the rtc up or one will end up killing the other as they are teritorial and agressive when feeding. if your power feed one it should catch up a bit and u could try again.
Red tails are quite solitary when they get bigger naturally so i dont think they will want to share with each other.

marble cats are probably more aggressive than rtcs, although ultimately smaller growing in the long run.
 
i say, slide in a divider. what else is in the tank? keep the meanie alone on 1 side, and the others on the other side. power feed the smaller guy then remove the divider n try again. if u see agression again, put back the divider. thats the best thing i can think of so you dont have to move fish from tank to tank with diff params.
 
eat one... i hear they taste great
 
I seperated them last nite, and put the bully in the catfish jail. He definately doesnt like being in the sump, but its better than puttin him in another tank all together. The sump was made out of a 55 gallon tank so he has about 2 1/2' to move around. I'm gonna try to plump up the little guy quickly and try again in a few weeks.......Hopefully :D


bob

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I don't know if that will help I have a 22 incher that I picked up two stupidly large pacu 16-20 inchers and my redtail is constantly attacking these two and i mean he will swim up and ram them or will attempt to bite a fin or anything his mouth hits. I think some redtails are just a little to aggressive. This one also swallowed my african tiger fish.
 
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