thank you Necro.you always seem to answer my questions thats awsome is there any catfish questionsyou cant answer
What goes on in a rtc's head
- Thread starter niblit
- Start date
Definitely. I've been proven wrong on here before. Thanks for the complements though. My ego loves you lol. I'm just a regular guy who keeps larger than life catfish, and reads every single piece of info he can on them. Start searching around for articles, news stories, and personal pages about catfish. You'll be amazed how fast your knowledge base will increase. Reading up here in the catfish section of MFK helps the most though. I learn more from other members than I ever will from books, or the scientists that I am associated with.
oh, and back on topic, the stones could be used somewhat for gastric purposes, but I think most of the time it's accidental. The two stones my catfish swallowed were erroded where they touched. So they could in theory help with grinding food, but most catfish crush their food with their pharangeal teeth before swallowing, unless the food is small enough to swallow whole. Large rtc cat crush crabs, and turtles with their pharageal teeth.
im pretty sure its not accidental as my rtc has kept the same few stomes since he was about 5in long he keeps them in his corner next to his big rock when they arnt on rotation in his gut
that's strange! Like I said learn something from you guys all the time. Mine was a one time accident, and then there were the non-accidents like a heater suction cup, a filter intake basket, my hand sometimes lol.
if you look at the first picture in my gallery youll see "fathead's"rocks his are the half dollar sized grey or white roundrocks in front of him a nd the tsn/rtc
Well there is actually some research that states that "The reasons for fish swallowing stones are unclear, but researchers have found that the stones may be used to grind up food items in the stomach (This is conclusive for predators that feed on smaller fishes), and/or that they serve as ballast to help fish move up and down the water column."
This obviously is simply one group of researchers however this is solid IMO as I have read some of the articles which show their reasoning behind their findings, There is also another study which claims that fish are actually attracted to certian types of stones for their chemical make up, as they are able to absorbe some of the mineral content from the stones to help with a defincency in their own system. (ie my antacid theroy LOL)
Either way these are not harmfull to the fish unless they swallow stones that they can not get back up and are to heavy for them to swim with (doubtful that it would happen)
This obviously is simply one group of researchers however this is solid IMO as I have read some of the articles which show their reasoning behind their findings, There is also another study which claims that fish are actually attracted to certian types of stones for their chemical make up, as they are able to absorbe some of the mineral content from the stones to help with a defincency in their own system. (ie my antacid theroy LOL)
Either way these are not harmfull to the fish unless they swallow stones that they can not get back up and are to heavy for them to swim with (doubtful that it would happen)
