Hey guys, today was a bad day.. My Red Tail Catfish literally swallowed my smaller flowerhorn cichlid.... So, anyway the flowerhorn had not been eating for the past few days as it was getting picky with the food and i decided to put it into a community setting-my fish pond. The fishes in my pond were generally peaceful and there was also another flowerhorn there as well as a 5 inch parrot cichlid, so it was supposedly quite safe for this 5 inch flowerhorn in there. I ensured that the fishes were stuffed full of food, and took the various measures like introducing the flowerhorn at a non-feeding time, but i failed to pay attention to the Red Tail Catfish. The parrot cichlids which were about 5 inches as well had been with my RTC since they were smaller and knew how to avoid him, but my flowerhorn didn't! I came back later in the afternoon and i was absolutely pissed off to see that my flowerhorn had disappeared.. and a bulge had appeared in the RTC's stomach. The expensive price of the flowerhorn is one thing, but more importantly, i think that the RTC is a mean killing machine. I don't mean this in a positive way, to put this more specifically, the RTC is MEAN! Have you guys ever wondered what happens to the live prey when it enters the RTC's stomach? By the way, RTC's don't have teeth, and that's why the killing is even more gruesome!
So, i would like to ask whether anybody knows how do the RTCs kill their prey? Do the fishes die a quick death of constriction or do the fishes die gruesomely by the digestive juices? What happens to the fishes when they enter the RTC, and how come RTCs can swallow crabs whole?
Aside from asking the question, i would like to discourage all of you from feeding live feeders to fishes in captivity such as RTCs and other tank fishes because that is unethical and cruel. The feeders are bred and raised for the single purpose of being eaten and ending with a painful death.. that is not very nice. I'm still feeling absolutely guilty for making the wrong decision of placing the flowerhorn in the fish pond... I cannot help but imagine how much it had struggled and how the enormous and fat RTC gobbled it just like that...
So, i would like to ask whether anybody knows how do the RTCs kill their prey? Do the fishes die a quick death of constriction or do the fishes die gruesomely by the digestive juices? What happens to the fishes when they enter the RTC, and how come RTCs can swallow crabs whole?
Aside from asking the question, i would like to discourage all of you from feeding live feeders to fishes in captivity such as RTCs and other tank fishes because that is unethical and cruel. The feeders are bred and raised for the single purpose of being eaten and ending with a painful death.. that is not very nice. I'm still feeling absolutely guilty for making the wrong decision of placing the flowerhorn in the fish pond... I cannot help but imagine how much it had struggled and how the enormous and fat RTC gobbled it just like that...
