My RTC Needs new good home!

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frillifish

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 20, 2012
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Hotel California
www.reverbnation.com
Hi guys,

I am fairly new here & not posted a lot due to health reasons lately.

I have a fabulous Redtail Cat named Fabio who our whole family loves, but I cannot maintain the tank anymore. He is about 2 years old and between 18-24". He eats raw prawns/shell on, whiting fillets, pellets, worms, salad shrimp, feeders, pretty much anything. He will even "farm" goldie feeders & not eat them until he deems them big enough to be a decent meal. :-)
Here he is a few months ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTkijL0dBQA&sns=em

I have a buyer for his tank but not a home for him. He is currently fine in his 150g but will outgrow that size in about another year.

Prefer to find an experienced RTC keeper who knows what they are getting into.

I did NOT know his eventual size when the store sold him to me, but, once i found out, had planned to keep upgrading tank size to hold him as we all enjoy him very much. However life tosses you other things, and, I am just unable to maintain a big tank anymore for some time to come.

Asking a $75 adoption donation mainly so I know he is getting a caring home. Negotiable.

Hoping to find him a 200+ G home w someone who knows to keep him either alone or only with other monster cichlids etc. He has gotten along peacefully with either Oscars or my red slider.

I am in Danville CA and will deliver up to 50-mile radius for the right person.
I don't know how to ship a fish this big. If you can find a service who can come pack him & ship him then I am willing, otherwise local pickup only.

Thanks for looking!
Linda

Text or call (NINE-Two-5) 98FOUR-ZERO9FIVE4
Or email lindaofficial AT gmail DOT com :-)
 
sry but i dont think he is going to grow any more cuz he i a short body RTC see how close the 2 top fins are to each other
 
It's too bad your not closer I know someone who'd take it. It'll grow a lot more and that's a guarantee. In my opinion that is not a shortbody, I've seen shortbodies and that's not a shortbody, it's shorter than the norm seems like it but not neccessarily a shortbody though. GLWS..hope you find him a great home.
 
Hi and thanks for the support! :)
I didn't know there were short body RTCs but, he has been growing like crazy the past 6 months. LOL I don't see signs of stopping. He's nice and full-bodied (IE getting plenty to eat!) so we have slowed down a bit on the amounts of food, also having re-homed my Oscar pair.

So-- how far away are you talking, there, from me in the East Bay CA?

I could ask my LFS about how to ship him possibly and fetch one of their shipping boxes.... If someone is willing to teach me how to do it, & he wouldn't arrive badly beat up from the trip :(

My tank buyer is a great guy & patient. He is all salt & wants it for his eels.

I also have an 8" albino Red Oscar who is pouting. He may be happier elsewhere too. ::sigh::
The spawning pair went to a university in SoCal to see if the prof could help them get a successful hatch. The pair bullied this other guy after they hooked up. And, now that they're gone... Pout.
He's in a different tank already.

Anyway yapping your ears off... Thx for the support!
Linda
 
He is nowhere near done growing...he's just a little baby.

I went to the Steinhart Aquarium in SF today...they had some 4'+ redtail cats in their 100,000 gallon amazon exhibit. I would try donating him to the aquarium, but I wouldn't be surprised if they turn him away. I don't know of anyone in the bay area with a tank large enough for him. It's sad that they sell them in pet shops.

If you aren't able to donate him or find someone with a 1,000G+ tank, the most humane thing to do may be to put him down. Rehoming him to someone without a tank large enough to keep him is not fair to the fish and will most likely lead to a slow death.

Here's a video I took today. The smallest redtail appeared to be over 40". The largest looked to be over 4'.

Good luck finding him a suitable home!

[video=youtube_share;d-oE-PXvuW4]http://youtu.be/d-oE-PXvuW4[/video]
 
Hi Linda! Sorry to see you are still having problems re-homing your beautiful red tail. I run a big fresh water fish rescue and I am working to open a small Public Aquarium here in SW FL (shooting for this winter to open) but that's, obviously, way too far.

Unless you are willing to spend perhaps $200-$400 to ship him, I'd not recommend even considering shipping.

He is a big fish and will require a lot of water and a lot of air/oxygen = big and heavy box, plus you will need a thick-walled, hard-plastic container as he'd puncture any plastic bag with his spines. Oxygen will have to be pumped into the shipping container, a tranquilizer and ammonia neutralizer will have to be added. The box will need to be thermally insulated. Such a large fish will have to fast (no food at all) for at least 2 weeks. The time he has to stay alive in such a box is no more than 36-48 hours if you fill it with at least 10 cubic feet of oxygen (on top of perhaps 5-10 gal of water) and prevent it from leaking out.

Something like a 50 gal hard-wall plastic cooler may work.

With all this work and expense, it still remains a big gamble whether he'll make it.

The best is to donate him locally or have him picked up... but as our colleagues said, please make sure he goes into at least a 2000 gal pond. I'd not settle for anything less.

PS: It does not look like a short-body RTC to me. It looks normal to me.
 
have you put a thread in the MFK Marketplace? that might help you find a home for him faster
 
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