Hello I'm brand new t this forum & what a great resource this has been! I've been keeping freshwater fish for about 15 years. I just set up a indoor pond 400 gallons. I just purchased 4 2.5" Redtail Catfish through the mail. Should be getting them next week. Can 4 of these fish grow up together & coexist in this pond for a while? Also what are some good tankmates for them? TIger Shovel Nose? How about Sailfin Pim, Tigrinis & Marbled Catfish? ow about FLowerhorns & Dovi? I probably won't keep all 4 of the RTC's because feeding them would break me! LOL. How about keeping two of them? SHould I try to find a pair if i keep two of them or should I just keep 1? Thanks for all of your help.
RTC Compatibility.
- Thread starter Hi8iS
- Start date
in enough water, you'll be fine. The memphis zoo has 3 puhing 5' in a 20,000g tank. They bite on each other every now and them but nothng serious. they have been together for 4-5 years. BUt i noticed recently that one is missing. I haven't talked to the curator but i doubt he moved it unless he really had to. I really don't think 400g is going to be enough room and i'm sure they will fight for space so i'd say 2 if you have to but i'd recommend one.
400 gallons really isn't enough for one, let alone four. And even having one in 400 gallons doesn't leave room for a tank mate. Most of the fish you list would be eaten fairly soon by a growing RTC.
Yes I'm well aware that this is a temporary housing. I will be building a more permanent housing for the fish next year. Probably about a 1500 gallon pond. I am a contractor & have built many ponds so this is not even a slight problem. My concerns are more about campatibility. So if Marble cat, triginis or tsn are larger than the rtc they still cannot be housed together? I've gotten these RTC so cheap that I might just resell them to my LPS & do a Catfish pond with the others from my list then & just forget about RTC alltogether.justonemoretank;3410760; said:
Also if I ditch the idea of keeping RTC's all together can Ray's live with the other fish I have listed as long as they are larger? Are the RTC's much more aggressive in nature than the other cats mentioned? Most of the fish I hae listed are all for sale & living together at my LPS in a 240 gallon tank including a 8" RTC. All the cat's in the sale tank are within a inch or two of each other. That includes Marbled Catfish/ Tigrinis/ RTC & TSN. Thansk alot for all the help. Like I mentioned I have been keeping maily rare malawi predatory Cichlids for about 15 years & I always like to push the limits of tank compatibility but these fish all being so expensive i'm looking for help from all of you
i have heard that rays would get eatten by big cats...there is debate on this...if the tsn was much bigger then the rtc it could eat the rtc and vise versa...i have tsns now if youbuild a big enough pond it could work the main thing to look at is the "max size" like ex. you more then likely can't keep a lima with a tsn or rtc...all the fish in the pond should be to big to fit in the cats mouth...if it is longer it problibly be eatten...imo
Just my opinion keep two rtc's and within a year max build a big pond like you planned and enjoy really cool big catfish. They recognize there owner/feeder and when they come up to the top to take fillets or shrimp from your hand it is great.
how much for all the fish at the lfs? if you look around on here you can see alot of pictures of people keeping all sorts of different combinations of fish that u stated earlier. The biggest thing to keep in mind is your going to need a huge pond. And make sure the size difference isnt to big. like they said. if it casn fit in its mouth its to small. But even then becareful. I had a 7inch hybrid that ate a 6in arrowana.
it is up you some of the best set ups have marginally safe mixtures of fish sometimes it works sometimes it does not i would not set hard and fast rules as to what you can and can not do.
All i would say is when you add new fish or put any fish together be prepared to watch and have a plan B, if things get nasty. it comes down to how well you can read your fish.
Space, feeding , hiding places and individual personalities all play a big part in how well tank mates interact .
All i would say is when you add new fish or put any fish together be prepared to watch and have a plan B, if things get nasty. it comes down to how well you can read your fish.
Space, feeding , hiding places and individual personalities all play a big part in how well tank mates interact .