Red Tail Catfish

[Carina]

im soooo worried my red tail catfish is going to die

hes in a tank with only one other fish and just recently the tank has come infested with snails. ive put some treatment in the water but the snails keep breeding. i noticed my red tail catfish has a huge pot belly so we took him out of the water and felt his belly gently and you can feel lots of snail shells in his belly. will he be able to pass them or is he going to die ??

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

hmm im not sure if he will be abeal to pass them. doesn't sound good to me. you should really be taking the snails out by hand everytime you find them. treatments to kill snails can be hard on the fish.

 

[WILDER]

What do you feed the fish.
Right cook some frozen peas in boiling water for a few minutes, let cool down pop out of shell, and mush between fingers and add to the tank.
Can the fish maintain its balance in the water, and what does it look like when he goes to the toilet.

 

[Carina]

he gets fed on algea wafer and catfish pellets. he can swim ok and when he goes to the toilet it looks normal.

 

[andywg]

Knowing the appetite of the RTC, I would be extremely surprised of the snails are a problem that will really harm them. They are known to try eting everythign from wood to heaters to rocks to fish that are the same size as themselves.

Your largest problem will be if he decides they are not edible and vomits them back up. Predatory fish have extrewmely nasty stomach acids and if he vomits you will find the water stats go absolutely haywire.

Also, can you be sure they are snails in there? How often have you felt the belly of an RTC when it has eaten a lot that isn't snails? While RTCs spend their time looking for things to eat, they usually realise fairly quickly what they can and can't eat and spit it back out. Normal problems are more large rocks getting stuck in the throat.

A more important question is to wonder what you are going to do with a fish that can surpass 6 feet long in the wild, and is know to hit 5 feet in captivity.

 

[johnatkin]

Is it a red tailed catfish or could it be a red tailed black shark?

 

[Carina]

hes definatly a red tail catfish.

i have to admit i never usually feel his belly but i can tell they are snails because there are lots of little round hardbits in this bulge he has. im hoping he will just pass them out.

i'm going to keep him until he grows too large for me then im going to give him to my local seal sanctuary who have a huge display with catfish already in. i feel that is better than giving him back to the pet shop so they can make even more money by selling him to someone else who doesnt have a clue about them!

 

[WILDER]

Red tailed black shark need 40gal tanks, it the bala sharks they need 120gal tanks as they are a shoaling fish and have to be kept in group.

 

[CFC]

Please read my post in your thread in the catfish section for an informed answer.

 

[andywg]

Red tailed black shark need 40gal tanks, it the bala sharks they need 120gal tanks as they are a shoaling fish and have to be kept in group.

However, the red tailed catfish (Phractocephalus hemioliopterus) which the original poster has confirmed they have grows to a bare minimum of 3.5 feet and really requires a multi thousand gallon enclosure as they are constantly swimming around looking for food (i.e. anything that fits, and a few things that don't).

 

[WILDER]

Thought it was a red tailed shark as some call them cat fish so sorry.