Just bought a 3 inch red tailed catfish today. Does anybody know anything about them?

http://www.fishforums.net/content/Catfish/...ish-amazonian-/ heres their site profile

Be ready to take it back or start making plans to convert a pool for it. These are monsters that grow at an astonishing rate, all the while eating all the tank mates they can fit in their mouths.

Heres planetcatfish.com s link to them. And yes you will need a pond, probably a couple thousand gallons to properly house one.

http://planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=305

Agreed. If you don't have a 400+ Gallon tank or pool or whatever, return it ASAP.

And this is NOT to flame, it's advice.

if you brought one today your the one who should know about them
research before purchase is the golden rule

only info you need on these is -
1, they eat anythink and ever think ink most tank mates that will fit in there mouths
2, not only do they get big. They get BIG! so you need to be able to house them.

Oh, I know how big they get. It's one of my favorite fish so I thought I'd temperarly house one in my tanks.

400 gallon is way to small, they grow huge, as shown in the pic


Whats the point if its going to outgrow it in a month, it would eat all your fish anyway.

You wanted to keep one for what, a month maybe? Seems like a waste and a huge risk to your other fish.

where is it going to go when you can't keep it any more?

it will end up on ac with the others

it's alone in a thirty gallon. Going to return it to the pet store.

Urh, yeah, practical and ethical... Even if they do take it back, what's going to happen then? Same as always- it spends the rest of its days crammed into a tank far too small...

It's a sad thing, but it's not likely to change anytime soon. There will always be someone out there that knows nothing about redtails and buys them. As long as there is a market for them, I doubt they will stop putting them up for sale. I wish there was a permit system for these humongous fish out there (pacus, redtails, tsns, etc), otherwise they all eventually, except for the lucky few, end up in a crammed tank somewhere.

EDIT: Just realized this was my 1000th post.

This post has been edited by invaderwithkey: Mar 25 2008, 10:27 PM

I got into fish keeping about 4 months ago and my dad got me a book on tropical fish, so naturaly i looked through the book to see what the bigest fish there was, and it was the red tail catfish, and said it grows to about 2m long (6' 6" ish). I then went to do quite a bit of resreach about them, not actually thinking you could buy them that easil, in the uk anyway. Most places said a 2000 gallon tank is the absolute min for one of these and i you would need a custom tank with a custom filter and heater and stuff. I tried to work out if a 2000 gallon tank would be enough and i wouldnt think it is, 2m is basicly the hight of a door, so a fish thats as long as your door would need a massive tank. I was also shocked and amazed to see my local pets at home selling one. I completely agree with invaderwithkey that fish that big should need a permit. Although if i did win the lottery i might be tempted to get one, but i guess with tanks that big i might as well open a public aquarium.

Good post, Even in a beginners guide book that I got about 15yrs ago, it shows the size of a Redtail Catfish (36inches+) and that it needs a gigantic tank/public aquarium only...

This post has been edited by rossyt99: Mar 25 2008, 11:15 PM

Most pets unfortunately end up in bad situations, but fish seem to be the most abused. I'm sure we've all experienced it at least once, especially in our early days of fish keeping where we would try to cram a giant into a small tank. unfortunately most never learn. This forum is a great source of information that we should all open our ears to. Many a times I have both advised and been advised on fish living space. jlOisAhoTti, hopefully you realise that you made the right choice to return it and not participate in this fishes suffering. I agree with invaderwithkey on that fish need a permit. However, fish are not taking seriously and they will likely stay in this intolerable state for years to come.