RedTail Isn't eating

[HunterCustom]

Hello, first time on the fourms and honestly im not too happy about why im on here (though its a good place) for charismas my grandmother bought me a redtail Catfish, and he was very small, so I had put him in a 10g tank feeding him bloodworms and goldfish eventually he stopped eating the blood worms, but hes grown bigger (yes I know they can become huge and I dont have a tank that large) I have moved him into a 29g tank. ever since hes been in this tank hes stopped eating, wont eat sinking pellets, blood worms, feeder goldfish, or feeder guppies. Im really worried about him, I did find him a home in a pound but he is too small right now (his current size is 4-5 inches) he'll be moving out at around 10-12 inches But does anyone know why hes not eating. PH is fine, but my ammonia is very high atm because of the goldfish and having an undersized filter for a 29g.

The tank I have is a TopFin 29g starter kit, and this tank is no where close to being any good for him, The filter is rated for a 20-30g tank, its open with sand bottom though. like I said he will be going into a pound in the short future

 

[kno4te]

Get the water quality under control and it should start eating again. How long has the tank been established?

 

[Kolton13]

^ I would also try tilipia stuffed with pellets. got my cats eating real quick.

 

[Aquanoobious]

I haven’t seen a fish resist raw shrimp. Give it a shot.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Welcome, what do you mean by very high ammonia? Explain and elaborate please, how you measure it, what the number is, etc.

There is no point in trying to feed fish when one has ammonia in the water. Ammonia stresses fish and turns off appetite.

Also, while the tank size may be ok for the short moment, it sounds that the filtration is or soon will be insufficient.

Are you familiar with pros and cons of feeding live feeder fish? If not, there is a good thread here in the Freshwater Diseases section stickies.

 

[dr exum]

hey welcome !

get some prime to neutralize ammo until you get it under control -

GL

 

[Fishnerd360]

I agree with others are saying, before trying to feed the fish, get the ammonia under control. The more food getting into the tank that won’t get eaten, the more ammonia will be released into the tank.

 

[Jjiang00]

Your new 29 gallon may be uncycled, you can try adding old filter media, substrate, anything with a surface from your previous 10 gallon to help establish the tank, but definitely do a big water change right away!