My RTC couldn't stop eating
- Thread starter GiantFishKeeper101
- Start date
3 of em died from water issues. It happens suddenly, there was no sign. I realized there's a problem after 2' TSN and 2 rtcs died bloated on the surface. Manage to save 1, and right now he's 28" (in the picture).
It was unused swimming pool. About 20'x10'x5.5'. Idk, never check the issues but the water is green, can't escape algae since the pool doesn't have a roof or in a confined place. When it happens, I don't have the time to check any parameters since I worried about other fishes, drained the water ASAP.
Actually, lose in the process are 3 RTCs & 5 TSNs. Mostly 2', smallest 15".
But now you've not learned what happened and can step into the same do-do again.
How was the pool filtered? If I had to guess, they died from ammonia and nitrite poisoning, likely low levels and long term.
IIRC, you don't measure water parameters. You'll tend to kill more fish until you do. Just MHO, bro. I used to not measure too then got tired of killing fish cuz I stock heavy. You do too it seems. With heavy stock, you must measure water especially at the very first sign of ANY appetite or health-related problem.
The RTC in the photo looks female to me. Females grow substantially smaller than males, or so I see at least with my RTCs.
How was the pool filtered? If I had to guess, they died from ammonia and nitrite poisoning, likely low levels and long term.
IIRC, you don't measure water parameters. You'll tend to kill more fish until you do. Just MHO, bro. I used to not measure too then got tired of killing fish cuz I stock heavy. You do too it seems. With heavy stock, you must measure water especially at the very first sign of ANY appetite or health-related problem.
The RTC in the photo looks female to me. Females grow substantially smaller than males, or so I see at least with my RTCs.
Yes, before this I never checked water parameters. But now I start to aware that my fish keep dying so everytime there's abnormal behaviour, I check the parameters. Such a loss to lose a 2' fish. Or an expensive one. Yeah, I've been better since.
Yes, the survivor seems to eat a lot but grow so little than the last three. Even the RTCxTSN grow faster than 'her'. Would've thought females grow quicker & larger than males.
The RTC gender-related growth disparity that I have mentioned is only based on my 10 RTCs that I have had for not that long, 7 of them only for 2 years, and they are all rescues but one.
I don't recall reading this growth info anywhere else. That makes me assume that my tentative observation may be wrong or my gender assignment may be too. Sexing RTC is said to be unknown in many sources, which makes my conclusions double unreliable until more verification is available.
From what I could see, the females have narrower and more sloping head shape versus males and are invariably smaller among my 10 fish relative to males. The males' heads are flatter and wider, typical of catfish species in general (but not all inclusive). I don't really see in my 10 anything in between - it's either one type of head or the other. And it coincides with size disparity, which is a bit trickier as one of my males is a finicky feeder, so it's lagging behind.
All in all, this gender distinction is more or less obvious to my eye, if proven in the future to be correct with more data.
As for other catfish species, females can and often do exceed males either in mass or in length or both. So, I'm not aware of how to generalize that aspect over all or most catfish species... or only over those that grow large, which is our interest.
I don't recall reading this growth info anywhere else. That makes me assume that my tentative observation may be wrong or my gender assignment may be too. Sexing RTC is said to be unknown in many sources, which makes my conclusions double unreliable until more verification is available.
From what I could see, the females have narrower and more sloping head shape versus males and are invariably smaller among my 10 fish relative to males. The males' heads are flatter and wider, typical of catfish species in general (but not all inclusive). I don't really see in my 10 anything in between - it's either one type of head or the other. And it coincides with size disparity, which is a bit trickier as one of my males is a finicky feeder, so it's lagging behind.
All in all, this gender distinction is more or less obvious to my eye, if proven in the future to be correct with more data.
As for other catfish species, females can and often do exceed males either in mass or in length or both. So, I'm not aware of how to generalize that aspect over all or most catfish species... or only over those that grow large, which is our interest.
