i recently aquired a red tailed catfish from a friend who was thinking about releasing it............ i almost hit him....but i took the catfish instead. i plan on putting it in my 3,000 outdoor pond. i live in texas so the temp should be ok..... but i am at a lost for any information about this fish. like its maximum size, feeding requirements, and temerment. the pond has two inhabitants. a large sunfish and a 25" channel cat.....will this be ok?
red tailed catfish
- Thread starter cichlosoma123
- Start date
the sun fish will get eaten and the channel cat will be ok, the RTC will eat what ever the hell you allow it to, including small dogs and cats. they can reach up to 6ft in the wild, but yours may only reach 4ft maybe bigger.
that sounds like some good habitat for it. the channel catfish will be ok for a couple years, but once the redtail is bigger he'll probably be lunch. As for the sunfish I am suprised the channel hasn't ate it yet. Take lots of pics of your rtc and channel for us! Good luck. Oh and you may want a winter tank just in case the temps get too low in your pond for the rtc. or heat it when it's cold. I know it snowed when i was in san antonio, so be careful.
not to step on your toes, I just don't want him thinking a channel will get that big. The largest wild caught channel catfish was 58 lbs. , and the largest rod and reel record for the RTC was 98 lbs. with specimens commercially caught over 150 lbs. Channel cats will probably reach a max of 3 1/2 ft. anything more is a monster. Your RTC should hit at least 4-6 ft. If the channel is bigger right now then he will probably be ok for life with the RTC, but if the RTC starts to way outgrow him you may want to seperate. Again tigrinus I am not trying to step on your toes.
I love red tail catfish ( check out my nick if you dont believe me ) but only the biggest
setup can accomodate a monster like that.
setup can accomodate a monster like that.
not to step on your toes, I just don't want him thinking a channel will get that big. The largest wild caught channel catfish was 58 lbs. , and the largest rod and reel record for the RTC was 98 lbs. with specimens commercially caught over 150 lbs. Channel cats will probably reach a max of 3 1/2 ft. anything more is a monster. Your RTC should hit at least 4-6 ft. If the channel is bigger right now then he will probably be ok for life with the RTC, but if the RTC starts to way outgrow him you may want to seperate. Again tigrinus I am not trying to step on your toes.
Oh ok nice! I could have swore that channels got bigger than that. I remember seeing them at the zoo. These things were huge. But i suppose the glass can play tricks as well as me not going to the zoo in about 3 years.
blue catfish get really huge though! During the late 1800s I believe former president Theador Rosevelt reported buying blue catfish for study purposes for the american museum for natural history. He said when wieghed he had one specimen nearly 300 lbs. and two others close to 200 lbs. Those must have been amazing fish to see. Blue cats have only been caught up to 122 lbs I believe rod and reel and 148 lbs commercially in the past 100 years though. there was a fossil catfish skull that was found recently similar to the blue catfishe's skull that was more than 3 ft long and had pectoral spines nearly 2 1/2 ft long. They estimate that with the bulk of a blue cat that size it would have wieghed in at 1500 lbs. It is considered to be a direct ancestor of the blue catfish. Man i love big kitties!
