hi all im alil concerned about my rapheal catfish ive had him for close to a year now , and at first he used to eat like a fatkid on cake , and was grwoing nicely for the first 2 months i had him in a 29 gal tank at first and then moved him into a 55 gal tank but now he barely eats from what ive witnessed he eats about once a month if that and has not grown one bit im not sure if that is normal for the species but i am really fond of him and would like him to be healthy , so should i transfer him back into the 29 gAL to see if he comes out to eat more ???? any tips or suggestion would be greatly appreciated do you think he has parasites or something he doesnt seem to be sick but im confused at this point than ks in advance
my ralphie isnt growing ???
- Thread starter wvera05
- Start date
as long as he doesnt actually look skinny i wouldnt worry to much about it, how big is he? what other fish do you have in with him, could they be bothering him? but yeah i have 2 pictus cats in my tank, if they only ate when i see them eat there is no way they would still be alive lol i have to turn off the tank lights, get the other fish into a feeding frenzy and then they will come out of their little hiding spots to look for food but only then lol and i think raphaels are really secretive by nature anyways, i dont have one but from what others have said they rarely see theirs as well
Man I havent seen mine eat in over 2 years... Still growing and looks healthy. Come to think of it, Ive only seen him 10 times in 2 years....
well yea i get that he is nocturnal and wont come out for me to see him, but yea i can tell he is not eating his stomach doesnt look like he ever eats alil sunk in, and he hasnt grown at all in over 8 months not one bit and he is pretty small maybe 3 1/2 inches at most ive had him close to a year and he should be at least 6 iches by now i would think do they grow rather slow ? i know for sure he isnt eating maybe like once a month to survive im going to switch him over to my 29 gal so i can monitor him more closely and make sure he is eating maybe my cichlids arent letting him eat or he is scared of them anymore advice would be greatly appreciated
wvera05;3567965; said:
if its belly is caved in thats bad. meaning nourishment isn't being taken/absorbed
theres many factors that could have caused this. and clue was that you noticed the cichlids might have been one clue
just try to go the 29 g method first since the fish was in there before anyhow so what he has if its sick the other fish might have too so no point into hospitalizing it
when transfer it to the 29g offer it food (frozen feeds/live worms/microworms) and watch if it swallows and spits it out or just swallows it and keeps it down thats one of my favorite methods when I do get in sunken bellies before treating it with meds to figure out what the problem lies
i got a huge raphel that stoped growing a year ago its around 10" long and i see it eat every night........ its crazy fat and loves to eat......
he is doing well hasnt come out at all since i have transfered him over lucky there is not much hiding spaces so i can keep an eye on him and make sure he is fine hasnt really eaten anything but hopefully that will change over the next couple of days i will update you on his progress