NTT getting bigger & bolder

islandguy11

Redtail Catfish
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Sep 17, 2017
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My NTT is slowly but surely putting on size. Yeah he's got some funky messed up tail stripes lol, but he's been 100% stable color-wise since I got him about 10 months ago at ~3.5", and loves pellets (though only HSC) so I'm not complaining. He's probably a tad under 7" now.

But it's also good to see him finally getting bolder too. He used to never start eating until he saw the Flagtail digging in first. But that's changed, now he's the first to start chomping with or without the FT present.

NTT Dat 27 Aug 2019 m.jpg

NTT Dat 27 Aug 2019 right m.jpg

NTT Dat photobombed by FT b m.jpg
 

islandguy11

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Sep 17, 2017
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He’s coming along nicely. Getting kinda chunky. How big are those tiles Barrett?
Thx Matthew, and yeah he's been chunky for a while now, I need to reduce feeding but it's hard when he comes out and begs.

The piece in the first pic is different from all the rest so not sure, but the main bottom tiles are 16"X16" based on a partial piece I have left over and just measured. They didn't completely cover the very very bottom part so my handyman had to cut some additional pieces (then also cut more pieces to cover the glass bracing that runs the entirety of the bottom, hence the 2 levels).

The tank is 96"X30"X30". The background tiles are larger, I think 20"X 20" and have additional pieces siliconed onto them because they were too short. Here's a wider photo of the tank -- made a DIY shelter with tiles about a month ago, but my fish hated it for some reason so I took it out after a couple of days -- maybe they didn't appreciate my Frank Lloyd Wright inspired design lol.

375 with new fish house lol m.jpg
 
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islandguy11

Redtail Catfish
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Sep 17, 2017
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Speaking of that fish house, sadly it'll never be registered as a historic landmark -- very coincidentally it was destroyed last night during a storm when a huge gust of wind knocked over a heavy bed frame (that I moved out of my bedroom to make way for a 325 lol).

poor fish house.jpg

poor fish house 2.jpg
 
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Gage Zamrzla

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Very nice. Personally I'm a fan of, "funky" or unusual stripes so I think it looks really cool. Also switched to tile myself recently and while it is really different I've never had an easier to maintain setup.

Keep us posted in the future.
 

islandguy11

Redtail Catfish
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Sep 17, 2017
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Thailand
Very nice. Personally I'm a fan of, "funky" or unusual stripes so I think it looks really cool. Also switched to tile myself recently and while it is really different I've never had an easier to maintain setup.

Keep us posted in the future.
Thx Gage, that's certainly a better way to think about his tail stripes :) If you have any pix of your tile plz share. This is also my first time to use them and it just made sense as I didn't want to go with a substrate and the glass bottom was scratched up pretty good.

I've seen stories of some peeps getting quite a bit of detritus caught under them after say a year or so, but of course that also depends on a lot of other factors like bio-load, filtration & maintenance, how water flow is directed, etc. Having a vacuum cleaner like a Flagtail helps too, there's really no such thing as left over food when they're in the tank lol.
 

Gage Zamrzla

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Jun 25, 2010
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Thx Gage, that's certainly a better way to think about his tail stripes :) If you have any pix of your tile plz share. This is also my first time to use them and it just made sense as I didn't want to go with a substrate and the glass bottom was scratched up pretty good.

I've seen stories of some peeps getting quite a bit of detritus caught under them after say a year or so, but of course that also depends on a lot of other factors like bio-load, filtration & maintenance, how water flow is directed, etc. Having a vacuum cleaner like a Flagtail helps too, there's really no such thing as left over food when they're in the tank lol.
Same about the detritus after some time but I'm hoping the flow is enough that it shouldn't be too much issue. I'll be sure to post a photo or two real soon once I cut the tile around the overflows, just waiting for a friend to loan me his tile saw.

My favorite funky stripe/marking was my first IT. Perfect, thick classic 4 bars both sides, ALWAYS ST stable and had a perfect dot on the tail by the back stripes.
 
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