New baby red tail owner. Need advice, please

[Exotic$4me]

I think that if you inquire you will find that zoos and public aquariums do not accept "donations" of rescue fish, reptiles or other animals...at least, certainly nothing as common as a RTC...and have not done so for many years. If they did, there would be a moat full of 4-foot RTC's in every zoo in the land.

Don't know about places like Ohio Fish Rescue or Viktor's enterprise ( .avatar--xss { width: 21px; height: 21px; line-height: 21px !important; margin-right: 2px; } thebiggerthebetter @thebiggerthebetter ) but the plight of this species is really highlighted by the fact that we are discussing how to find somebody to rescue this fish...and it's only 2 inches long, indicating that the owner literally just got it!

Yeah...they grow that fast! Sorry, OP, I understand the appeal, but...unfortunately, for most people, the best possible advice regarding RTC ownership is...don't get one.

Very sound advice! I was going back to a time when I donated fish to Steinhart Aquarium in the 1980s, yet even then my fish were nothing to the size of RTCs.

I discovered Ohio Fish Rescue on YouTube. It's the most extreme case of a monster fish keeper's obsession gone wild that I know of--indoor swimming pool, 10,000-gallon tanks, and all sorts of large fish that eventually end up there. It's worth a look for me to keep my aquarist obsessions in check.

 

[Batmans]

The industry and hobby standard is EDPM rubber 45 mil, any brand seems fine, Firestone is the original brand. Spiny and toothy fish can puncture this liner too in theory, in practice you'd have to be really unlucky for this to happen.

By the same token, you can throw the liner into any above-ground pool, which is what is often done by peers.

Thank you so much for everything! What are you thoughts on heaters? Seems the RTC likes to put everything in its mouth and I don't want to burn the liner either.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Heat the room, if possible. Or peers often place the heater inline or in the filter like a sump. Or make a large heater guard that cannot be swallowed, say out of PVC or ABS pipe.

 

[Batmans]

Heat the room, if possible. Or peers often place the heater inline or in the filter like a sump. Or make a large heater guard that cannot be swallowed, say out of PVC or ABS pipe.

Thank you . Have a great weekend my friend.