Picture of my beautiful RTC

[necrocanis]

Check out indoor pond in the pond section or catfish bonanza in the catfish section, and catfish "n" friends! Should be some good shots in those. It's a pool from target, and the 350 gal pond is a cattle trough from a farm supply store. I'm into ghetto fish keeping.

 

[ElJefe]

Check out indoor pond in the pond section or catfish bonanza in the catfish section, and catfish "n" friends! Should be some good shots in those. It's a pool from target, and the 350 gal pond is a cattle trough from a farm supply store. I'm into ghetto fish keeping.

Your "ghetto" fish keeping isn't Ghetto. It's dedication, and you providing adequate space for your fish to thrive (notice i didn't say live there is a difference!) it's a sad situation and very selfish on his part. no one can/will change his mind.
i was wondering
Would a 10'x4' tank for cats be beter in glass or acrylic?

 

[ElJefe]

Public aquarium? Dinner table? Trash can? Local river? 2ft aqaurium? lol, those seem like the logical choices for where it might be. Hey do you guys think I am cruel for keeping a rtc in a 1100 gal pond? 10' dia. I think he'll be fine for some years to come lol.

oh by the way too small you need to just go out back and start digging him a
new home of say 5000gal...sounds fair, make sure you line it and thats not all you will even be able to see it!!

 

[kntrygrl4lyfe]

This was a crazy one... lol

Even in a pond I still see my rtc eat.

I wish this person came back on here and posted pictures of his cat or what happend to it.

 

[killerfish]

its a nice cat poor thing but all the talk is about when it gets big it won't it will get stunted i'm sure plus the tank is 2 feet long how wide is it can the cat barly turn around it won't grow to much more before it can't turn around and it will get stressed and die IMO

 

[fishlover88]

Im with everyone else that he was keeping a very large fish in an incredibly small tank. But many took it a little too far. Its one thing to tell him he needs a bigger tank, its entirely different to chastize him and call him names. Education is the key with the fish we all love to keep. We have come a long way to keep fish the way that we do. But we all know people who still keep goldfish in a small bowl, when some species are capable of reaching truely great proportions. I was a victim of this kind of hazing on another sight, and its not right to do when we all know that we have done it, or someone else we know has kept a fish in a tank too small, or a tank that will become too small.

for me, education of the masses is the key to truely great fish keeping.

 

[necrocanis]

Im with everyone else that he was keeping a very large fish in an incredibly small tank. But many took it a little too far. Its one thing to tell him he needs a bigger tank, its entirely different to chastize him and call him names. Education is the key with the fish we all love to keep. We have come a long way to keep fish the way that we do. But we all know people who still keep goldfish in a small bowl, when some species are capable of reaching truely great proportions. I was a victim of this kind of hazing on another sight, and its not right to do when we all know that we have done it, or someone else we know has kept a fish in a tank too small, or a tank that will become too small.

for me, education of the masses is the key to truely great fish keeping.

I agree education is the best solution. In one part when I read through this I see where some tried to educate and he refused to listen to anyone's advice, but on the other hand there's no laws against keeping any sized fish in any sized tank.

That being said I can say that looking through the catfish thread today versus some of the threads back then that I really love the people that we have on here. Everyone really pitches in and does their research. I know that my knowledge and responsibility levels have come up really far in the past 2 years of being a member on this site. At first I was bashed a little bit for my habits of keeping large catfish, but after everyone found out that I really had intentions of trying to keep them in an adequate environment I was more readily accepted. That's way more than I can say for other sites that I have tried to be a productive member in. I feel that we are more open to new ideas and more willing to tolerate and help other people out rather than just bash them until they decide that they will never listen to us and just do what they want. I know that I for one try to provide information off of tons of research to try and help people out. When someone asks what realistically they should keep a rtc in for life you can't just say no you should shoot yourself for even wanting to keep one, you have to lay down the facts and if they are hardcore dedicated then you have to try and help them to their dreams. I would be so bummed out if I could keep these beautiful fish that I own. I do think that you should have to apply for a special permit or there should be some kind of documentation that you are required to read and sign before you purchase these fish so that you know what you are getting into. I know I have personally talked several people in pet stores out of getting a tsn. They thought that their 75-125 gal aquariums would be fine for life and that the fish would only get to a certain size depending on the size of their environment. After I told them the known facts they changed their minds and said it wouldn't be worth it to put such a magnificient animal through so much just because we think it's cute. So any way point is that people are always going to keep these cats no matter what you tell them so you have to explain all their options so that they are truely educated in what they are doing. This site helped me realize that you can keep rtc if you are willing and dedicated enough. It's actually much cheaper to keep them in a pond than it is in an aqaurium. So what if I can't see them from the side. I have so much interaction between me and my catfish in the ponds and I love it. They seem so much more natural in a pond than in a tank. It's nice to have them swim to the top and circle for food or to be petted. IMO rtc look gorgeous from above. You can see their red tails, their gorgeous colored eyes, beautiful pectoral fins, and their spots. They are so wide it's almost like they are made for ponds anyway. Same with other catfish also. Granted my knifefish looks like a grey pencil with eyes from above I still adore his antics in such a large body of water. So lets keep up the education and never bash even if someone thinks they can keep a planiceps in a 5 gal.

 

[necrocanis]

its a nice cat poor thing but all the talk is about when it gets big it won't it will get stunted i'm sure plus the tank is 2 feet long how wide is it can the cat barly turn around it won't grow to much more before it can't turn around and it will get stressed and die IMO

I think the truth is unless you have a sump with wet/dry filter that is larger than the tank the fish will outgrow the bioload of the tank and will have high levels of ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, bad ph, and will eventually die of one desiese or another. Most likely from brown/black blood desiese. It's very common in rtc. They become lathargic, won't eat, and eventually can't asorb oxygen from the water because their gills fail in high ammonia situations.

 

[milkman407]

a 6x4x2 should be good for a rtc.

But wow, that was fun to read.. Now i gota go find another flameing thread

 

[DrZacharyus]

nah, 6x4x2 is too small in length, if it was 10x4x3 it would be good for quite sometime, i would think a 12x5x3 would be good for life.