When do redtail catfishes have red tails? My red tail is about 8inches but still has a blackish and whiteish colour to it.
Rtc tail
- Thread starter RTC_KEEPER
- Start date
I have never kept them but I have seen very small ones with red tails and I've seen quite large ones without the red tail( more grey brown at best). So it's not a size issue. I don't think it's an age issue either. I know they can grow very fast but I doubt the little 5" ones with red tails were older then the 20" one without. My guess and it is a guess is health and happiness. Meaning food quality, water quality, stress, could all be factors in coloration as with all fish. Or another guess is genetics, bad genes over bred lines not properly mixing genes or culling the malformed can lead to many issues one being coloration issues.
If you don't mind me asking. What specie of rtc are you talking about? The Amazon or Asian? Never kept the Amazon red tail cat before but I have tried keeping an Asian red tail cat about 4 years ago. With my Asian rtc he developed his red tail once he got to roughly 8in. As for Amazon rtc's that I've seen it's kind of a toss up on when or if it'll even get the red tail. I've some 2in babies with rad tails but also seen a couple of 1ft cats not having the red tail.
Genetics definitely play a part, and there might be a difference in color intensity between sexes, but diet can maximize the fish's potential. Try feeding some color food to it, like Hikari Blood Parrot pellets. I think you will see a difference in a matter of a week or so, and it will continue to get redder for a few months. There are other color foods out there, but I haven't come across anything that makes fish as red as this HIkari Parrot pellets.
I think SA RTCs start getting more red in their tail past 6"-8" under normal adequate care. As opposed to the prior posters, I have never seen a smaller RTC with a red tail.
Diet plays a crucial role as the fish has to get enough astaxanthin in the diet. High quality pellets usually have that. If you'd still like to supplement, adding shrimp with shell on and other crustaceans possessing red coloration would help, but beware of the thiaminase issues and a possible need to add more vitamin B1 to the diet. Another way is to add paprika to the fish food, albeit I have never done any of this special supplementation and I like the way my RTCs look, but I always wanted to give the paprika a whirl to see if it's true and how much more red they would get. I think I'll try it in the future.
Here are our RTCs:
Diet plays a crucial role as the fish has to get enough astaxanthin in the diet. High quality pellets usually have that. If you'd still like to supplement, adding shrimp with shell on and other crustaceans possessing red coloration would help, but beware of the thiaminase issues and a possible need to add more vitamin B1 to the diet. Another way is to add paprika to the fish food, albeit I have never done any of this special supplementation and I like the way my RTCs look, but I always wanted to give the paprika a whirl to see if it's true and how much more red they would get. I think I'll try it in the future.
Here are our RTCs:
It is an amazon redtail catfish. I will try and give it some high quality pellets too.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Make sure the pellet has astaxanthin and promises / has a reputation of giving fish good coloration.
Thank you! I am currently out of the house for some time so I can ask someone else to take a pic If he can