rtc 27 inch long 13 years old?!

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CarvinSigX said:
Malawi Aquatics in St. Louis has a big boy in (I think) an 800. Poor guy can't turn around very easily, but I'm pretty sure they took him in years ago just to save him. He just watches TV and eats. It has to be 48 inches or so.

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This is not the first time i have heard of this fish but no one seems to have a pic to prove it.

I found one in this is this the fish 5:00 in
[video=youtube;3felGmwXDj4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3felGmwXDj4[/video]
 
thebiggerthebetter said:
1. Do you know if RTCs are farmed for food? (BTW, I never understood why it is written that RTCs are not widely used for food in SA because their flesh is black/dark because I disected plenty of RTCs and their flesh has always been of normal, expected color.)

They are not widely used but there is a market and some are packaged and shipped to asia and other countries flash frozen. Their meat is red and tastes like pork. Most fish in SA generally have white flesh I believe. They like to eat fish with whiter flesh. That's what the dark meat refers to. It is just an old wise tale. The meat is actually very nutritious.

2. Or are they farmed for the aquarium trade? I was under a vague impression that RTCs in the aquarium trade are wild caught but their constant supply, which appears to be year-round, does indeed point to artificial production.

Unless they are specifically wild caught at expected times of the year, ie feb thru april then they are definitely farmed fish. I believe the answer is both. They are farmed in both asia and SA.

3. The third possibility, that's the most likely, is that RTCs are farmed to produce the RTCxTSN hybrids - the food fish - and some of those farmed RTCs go into the aquarium trade. Do you know if RTC is a paternal or maternal species in the production of the hybrid?

See above. This is also true. They use broodstock mainly for production of the hybrids, but do also flash freeze and ship out some of the RTC which is a small portion of the fish take. The RTC I believe(need to double check) is the male of the hybrid. I know this does not lend to my theory well, but the hybrids produced although sterile in my theory would also be female. Do you know the sex of the rtc that you have disected? Take any pics when you opened the belly?

Interesting thought about possibly most of the farmed ones being female.
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Answered within qoute!
 
CarvinSigX said:
Malawi Aquatics in St. Louis has a big boy in (I think) an 800. Poor guy can't turn around very easily, but I'm pretty sure they took him in years ago just to save him. He just watches TV and eats. It has to be 48 inches or so.

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Big fish. We need pics with a tape measure lol. Counting for the 25% judgement error most people have eyeballing fish that would actually put it at 36" lol. JK
 
Had I looked on the forum, I would have snapped a pic...I was just there tonight. LOL

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greenbud said:
This is not the first time i have heard of this fish but no one seems to have a pic to prove it.

I found one in this is this the fish 5:00 in
[video=youtube;3felGmwXDj4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3felGmwXDj4[/video]
Click to expand...

That's the one. I'm pretty sure its a 4 foot wide tank, so you can easily see how big that one is.

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greenbud said:
This is not the first time i have heard of this fish but no one seems to have a pic to prove it.

I found one in this is this the fish 5:00 in
[video=youtube;3felGmwXDj4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3felGmwXDj4[/video]
Click to expand...

Damn that's one big RTC. I wouldn't doubt that tank is 4' wide. It looks much wider then this so claimed 3.5ft RTC sitting in a 830 gallon tank 8'x4'x3.5' someone posted in the general discussion boards. I don't believe this tank is 4' wide though.

View attachment 860353

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Crazyfish88 said:
Damn that's one big RTC. I wouldn't doubt that tank is 4' wide. It looks much wider then this so claimed 3.5ft RTC sitting in a 830 gallon tank 8'x4'x3.5' someone posted in the general discussion boards. I don't believe this tank is 4' wide though.

View attachment 860353

View attachment 860354


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Tank looks to be maybe 6-8' x 2' imo. The tile at the bottom appears to be 12" and exit sign maybe 10". my guestimate is this rtc is about 22" max. Romeo in the vid is probably at least 3'. You can see he doesn't fit front to back, and the internal dimensions of that tank would be less than 4'. So I'm sticking with 36-42" conservatively. :)
 
necrocanis said:
Do you know the sex of the rtc that you have disected? Take any pics when you opened the belly?
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No. I was after death causes, never sex. I don't even know what the reproductive organs look like on the inside. No pics. Too gruesome.

I am interested in CarvinSigX taking measures of the tank and the fish too or we can simply and easily call the store :) The video is quite quick and misleading in terms of the sizes of things but if I was forced to guess at gun point without knowing any of the preceding info, I'd say this tank is 200-400 gal :) even though this guess is worthless atm.
 
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