New to site Red tail Catfish owner

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brewerytattooer

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 15, 2013
90
2
6
Rochester NY
Hello everybody,

Just joined the site. I can't believe the amount of info on here. I got a red tail catfish over the summer, and man is this thing growing fast!! Right now i am feeding it shrimp pellets and feeder gold fish. He was about 3 inches long when i got him. Now he is about 10 inches in length. already had to change tanks twice! A few questions. Fish seems real skiddish. Freaks out when i turn the light on or when i walk by the tank. He has a rock cave that i built in there, that he hides in constantly. Could that be why he is so jumpy?

One more thing. What is the optimal food to be feeding him?

Thank you all for your time.
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brewerytattooer said:
Hello everybody,

Just joined the site. I can't believe the amount of info on here. I got a red tail catfish over the summer, and man is this thing growing fast!! Right now i am feeding it shrimp pellets and feeder gold fish. He was about 3 inches long when i got him. Now he is about 10 inches in length. already had to change tanks twice! A few questions. Fish seems real skiddish. Freaks out when i turn the light on or when i walk by the tank. He has a rock cave that i built in there, that he hides in constantly. Could that be why he is so jumpy?

One more thing. What is the optimal food to be feeding him?

Thank you all for your time.
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Click to expand...

Hi welcome to MFK! :welcome:
You'll gain full membership once you've posted 5 post in here, and yeah, if you're posting here in the introduction forum it'll not count.

But to answer some of your questions, (almost) anybody would agree with me to feed a RTC good pellets, I won't name brands though, you have to do the research, that will be your assignment, actually in the hobby it would be more fun for you to know more and more for the thrill of the said hobby.

Also, RTC can be skittish when they're not used to the human traffic, or maybe in your house, I assume that you might have a kid that always knocks your aquarium so it's somehow always feels like threatened whenever someone passes by. I would recommend you to let your fish see your presence on feeding time, yes specially feeding time so that it will go at ease to you, and that will make your RTC understand that you're his source of food...

Read the stickies in the forum! It'll help a lot! again Welcome!
 
Welcome!
I suggest you stay away from the gold feeders at your local petshop. They tend to have disease and i believe thats the cause of how my gars got head erosion. And i think people will agree with me here on staying away from goldfish.
When i fees live, i go to my local baitshop. There they have flathead minnows (could be different at yours). My fish enjoy them and i havent had a problem with the flatheads yet. But i do only feed them live once in a blue moon. Red rosy minnows arent as bad. I feed them to my smaller gar and my catfish enjoys them to.
Look into frozen foods also. I switched to that a few months back and i don't regret it. I usually get frozen silverside fish. All ny gar and catfish love it. Ive tried frozen krill also, that seems to be okay. My catfish will eat it, gars love it.
Definitely stick with the pellets. There good for the fish, but try a variety of pellets. Experiment a little. If you wanna get crazy, ive heard people tell me they buy fresh tilapia, cut it up, and feed it to there fish. Same with fresh shrimp that me and you would eat. Im sure you can get the tilapia and shrimp at the grocery store.
Fish looks great and they do grow crazy fast!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
Welcome!

You mention you had to change tank size twice already, what size tank is he in now? RTC get HUGE and are usually housed it tanks/ponds that most people can't provide.

As far as feeding it goes the stay away from feeders especially goldfish and the grocery store is your friend. Post above make's some good suggestions on food.
 
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