rtc not bothering small fish

[Apollyeon]

i have a rtc that is close to a foot long in a large pond setup with other fish of varying sizes,,my observations are that he doesnt seem interested in trying to eat tank mates even though he very well could just due to how large he is. hes never bothered anyone just prefers to sit in one spot in the corner..is the eating other fish only something they start doing once they are huge? he gets fed pretty well lots of tilapia filet and random seafood items. loves catfish pellets and other food items i feed the pond,

 

[Fishman Dave]

Haha, good question. Unfortunately no easy answer. Every one is different with their own traits. I have had one that lived perfectly happily with other edible sized tank mates his whole life whereas a second happily ate tank mates from being small. The most frustrating are the ones that don’t eat tank mates and then one day despite being well fed just seem to get fed up of tank mates and then they are gone! I did exactly what you have done, posted he was happy with his tank mates and within a week my 6” dat was his dinner despite them sharing the same cave for a year.
Seems to be a mix of personality, boredom and running out of space.
Don’t trust them with prized smaller fish and if you get one that is happy not to eat tank mates all his life then count yourself lucky.

 

[Apollyeon]

Haha, good question. Unfortunately no easy answer. Every one is different with their own traits. I have had one that lived perfectly happily with other edible sized tank mates his whole life whereas a second happily ate tank mates from being small. The most frustrating are the ones that don’t eat tank mates and then one day despite being well fed just seem to get fed up of tank mates and then they are gone! I did exactly what you have done, posted he was happy with his tank mates and within a week my 6” dat was his dinner despite them sharing the same cave for a year.
Seems to be a mix of personality, boredom and running out of space.
Don’t trust them with prized smaller fish and if you get one that is happy not to eat tank mates all his life then count yourself lucky.

yea trying to decide to rehome him or not,,hes got a pretty decent setup size wise for when its full grown just confused to the lack of any interest in bothering anyone hes pretty calm fish just sits and waits till theres food in the water eats plenty and then goes back to being passive,,he will steal food out of other fishes mouths but doesnt seem too interested in the other fish themselves,,some of these fish are very small,3 inches or so and hes a foot long

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Depending on the size of the tank mates compared to the red tail, some of the tank mates could be too small for it to bother eating (or in other words, it would burn more calories chasing them than it would get if it caught them), so it leaves them alone.
And based on what you just said about very small tank mates, my guess is that's precisely what's happening.

 

[Apollyeon]

Depending on the size of the tank mates compared to the red tail, some of the tank mates could be too small for it to bother eating (or in other words, it would burn more calories chasing them than it would get if it caught them), so it leaves them alone.
And based on what you just said about very small tank mates, my guess is that's precisely what's happening.

went ahead and rehomed it,,not gonna take any chances,,the entire purpose of the pond is for holding breeders and to growout expensive fish in record time. originally the idea was for it to get rid of culls

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

I see. Best wishes with the growing out in that case.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

It's not a bulletproof symptom and the reasons can be many, but being that sedentary doesn't seem right for an RTC at any age. Yet it can happen sometimes I guess. But if it is the norm for an RTC, Id say it experiences some kind of stress. Otherwise it'd swim every now and then in the day and more so at night.

Like Dave says, personalities differ. The fish history also matters, what it was raised on and fed before. Some indeed are very opportunistic treating their tank mates as prey, others are not but these others may change any day.

1ft RTC is usually about 4-6 months old. It's a baby.