red tail catfish help!!

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redtailbeasts

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 8, 2012
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cambridge
hi
i bought 2 red tail cat fish there 3 inch babies and im currently keeping them in a 18inch wide x 24inch tall x 60inch long ( 1ft and a half x 2ft tall x 5ft long ) i am aware how big they grow
,but can you please help me with the following questions :
1) what bulky supermarket foods can i feed them to drive down the cost
2) i know they can grow over 5 ft in the wild but will they grow 5 ft in a tank or is it possible they may grow just a good 3ft,please answer onestly as i hear so many diffrent storeys on this.and i at what rate,i know this varies.
3) with out saying an ocean sized tank what would be a respectable sized tank to keep them in.
4)a question im desperate to find an answer for is!!! what other fish can i keep with them,i know they have to be to keep for them to swallow,so what grows at a similar rate with them and doest just want to kill each other,i hear black pacu are a good idea because they grow big and there wide so dont fit in the mouth so easy but i would really like to keep 1 or 2 giant red snake heads (channa micropeltes),ant feed back on this would be great.

SORRY THE THREAD IS SO LONG,THANKS FOR LOOKING .
 
I can't think of any bulky supermarket food you might use that won't foul your tanks. Best bet would be to obtain fresh/frozen finfish species, squid, clams, mussels, earthworms, raw shrimp/prawns, etc. Keep them frozen and thaw out what you'd need every 3rd day (once they reach about 8"). Below 8", they need pretty much constant access to foods just to develop their normal fat deposits.

One cat alone in a 350 will last quite a long time, provided the footprint allows for easy turning of the cat. Additional cats means to multiply everything by the number of cats kept.

I'm not going to recommend any tankmates since it'll only make a tough housing/feeding situation worse. Basically, if you're worried about the housing and feeding bills of a large growing species, you may want to consider veering away from these eating machines.
 
you can also use raw shrimp from the super market just gotta cuttem into small pieces.
 
i feed mine shrimp and talapia. once every few days might go a week sometimes. mine is about 24 inches now and has slowed down a bit in growth. he is in a 300 gallon right now and goin in a 700 gallon pond demensions 8x4x3tall in about a month so i can have my 300 back.
really the only fish they can go with is fish bigger than them. mostly other cats
mine has been with a jardini aro a TSN channel cat and 3 spotted gar.
he has eaten numerous fish including a smaller gar that was about a foot long and huge blue gill that were about 8in in length or more
 
^agree, i feed all raw
 
Believe it or not I was keeping a Clown knife with my RTC for about a year. The RTC did not even try to eat it even though it could have easily. I thought it would be ok to add another tankmate so I dropped in a large bichir, did not make it to he bottom of the tank. Maybe because the RTC and CK were raised together from about 2" it was not considered food. Not sure. But nothing I know of can keep up with the RTC. You could get the tankmates first and let them get a head start before getting the RTC. But in the case of the snakeheads, if the are even the same size as the RTC, they will try and eat it. Will be a very delicate balancing act. I have read where some success was had when the RTC was added to a tank where the other tankmates were already established. I have RTC, TSN, Achara, CK, Mono, and Brachyplatystoma Juruense and one day hope to have all of them in my 1200, but I think I'll end up having to get another RTC later or run separate tanks. Good luck.
 
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