Your Biggest Catfish Picks

[woodie]

I would agree, though judging by the stocklist in their signature i dont think that is a priority for them

well for your information and now that i have calmed down enough post a reply this picture was taken ina 3ft holding tank while we moved the 5ft tank into a differnt postion where he is kept BY HIMSELF !!!!!!

and as for my me not taking pride and care over my fish and that there care is not pritoty to me..... well i'm truly upset by this i really dont think i will come back on this site your comments have hurt me ALOT

Clare

 

[CFC]

Unless you have a tropical pond of several thousand gallons then there is no way you have adequate housing for 2 tiger shovelnoses and a redtail catfish, thats a combined fish length of 12 feet and the volume of waste they would produce after a feeding would be phenomenal, planet catfish advises a 16x6x6 foot tank for a single redtail or tsn and considers that to still be too small. Keeping one of these enormous fish is one thing but three is ridiculas, even some public aquariums would struggle to house 3 such fish.

Edit make that 4 fish and 16 feet of combined length since i see you have a rtcxtsn hybrid as well

 

[Soaup]

I apologize on behalf of the members of the site and myself for hurting your feelings and i hope that you do rerconsider this is an amazing site, With that said. You have to understand that regardless of how much you love the fish the tank he is in just isnt enough. I would say your options are purchasing a massive tank or making some sort of pond with roughly 1000 gallons as he will need a ton of room. The fish is simply too large to menouver himself in that tank. If he has moved since I apologize again and wish you and your fish the best of luck.

 

[CFC]

I apologize on behalf of the members of the site and myself for hurting your feelings and i hope that you do rerconsider this is an amazing site, With that said. You have to understand that regardless of how much you love the fish the tank he is in just isnt enough. I would say your options are purchasing a massive tank or making some sort of pond with roughly 1000 gallons as he will need a ton of room. The fish is simply too large to menouver himself in that tank. If he has moved since I apologize again and wish you and your fish the best of luck.

The fish in the picture is one of the smaller catfish species she owns and so is the least of their worries, the south american redtail, tigershovelnose catfishes and the hybrid of the two can all reach at least 4 feet when full grown.

 

[woodie]

Unless you have a tropical pond of several thousand gallons then there is no way you have adequate housing for 2 tiger shovelnoses and a redtail catfish, thats a combined fish length of 12 feet and the volume of waste they would produce after a feeding would be phenomenal, planet catfish advises a 16x6x6 foot tank for a single redtail or tsn and considers that to still be too small. Keeping one of these enormous fish is one thing but three is ridiculas, even some public aquariums would struggle to house 3 such fish.

yes i do know that i would never take a fish on if i thought for one second i could not house or provide adeqate care for them.I have spent the last 5 years researching thses fish and talking to people who keep these baeutiful catfish. You should never jump to conclusions and if you asked i would have told you all about all new fish room what includes three tropical ponds to house my fish!!!!!!

I apologize on behalf of the members of the site and myself for hurting your feelings and i hope that you do rerconsider this is an amazing site, With that said. You have to understand that regardless of how much you love the fish the tank he is in just isnt enough. I would say your options are purchasing a massive tank or making some sort of pond with roughly 1000 gallons as he will need a ton of room. The fish is simply too large to menouver himself in that tank. If he has moved since I apologize again and wish you and your fish the best of luck.

at this moment in time i am still extremly upset i spend alot of time and money making sure all my fish have what there need to thrive and to be told that i dont care about my fish really upsets me! yes the 3foot was to small for him but as i sadi it was just a holding tank while his tank was moved and boy didnt he let me know that he didnt like been in the 3foot he was only in the tank a few hours as i thought it would be a lot less stressful for him

 

[Soaup]

I understand and she will have to address that problem. But my concern if you hadnt noticed she was hurt by what you me and everyone else said. So i addressed that issue. She obviously cares very much about her fish but has made a mistake with the housing for the little guy. The fish size will need to be addressed but the comments are like telling a mother who loves her child that she is a bad parent and is being cruel to the child. It hurts when she believes and im certain she really cares and is really trying. I cant comprehend that everybody who goes to the pet store looking for a catfish has a 1000 gallon tank/pond waiting for the fish so this story repeats itself over and over im sure. Otherwise if people were aware the fish would likely sit the rest of its life in the petshop and wait to be purchased, Thats no way to live. All im saying is that we were sorry for upsetting you and that the tank sizr of the fish will need to be addressed ASAP.

 

[CFC]

Can we see some pictures of the new fishroom please? I am going to be starting my own fish room which is a couple of hundred square feet in area early next year and would love to see how others have constructed and arranged theirs.

 

[Soaup]

Fish Room with Tropical Ponds. I also would be intrested. How do you house a tropical Pond? Let alone Three. Is it indoors?

 

[Bloo]

and as for my me not taking pride and care over my fish and that there care is not pritoty to me..... well i'm truly upset by this i really dont think i will come back on this site your comments have hurt me ALOT
Clare

Clare, that's not nice - I know
but do take care when posting pictures without explanations - such as of the beautiful catfish that can't even turn in the tank. People will question it, so it's best you pre-empt it so that things like that doesn't happen

 

[bunjiweb]

Unless you have a tropical pond of several thousand gallons then there is no way you have adequate housing for 2 tiger shovelnoses and a redtail catfish, thats a combined fish length of 12 feet and the volume of waste they would produce after a feeding would be phenomenal, planet catfish advises a 16x6x6 foot tank for a single redtail or tsn and considers that to still be too small. Keeping one of these enormous fish is one thing but three is ridiculas, even some public aquariums would struggle to house 3 such fish.

yes i do know that i would never take a fish on if i thought for one second i could not house or provide adeqate care for them.I have spent the last 5 years researching thses fish and talking to people who keep these baeutiful catfish. You should never jump to conclusions and if you asked i would have told you all about all new fish room what includes three tropical ponds to house my fish!!!!!!

I apologize on behalf of the members of the site and myself for hurting your feelings and i hope that you do rerconsider this is an amazing site, With that said. You have to understand that regardless of how much you love the fish the tank he is in just isnt enough. I would say your options are purchasing a massive tank or making some sort of pond with roughly 1000 gallons as he will need a ton of room. The fish is simply too large to menouver himself in that tank. If he has moved since I apologize again and wish you and your fish the best of luck.

at this moment in time i am still extremly upset i spend alot of time and money making sure all my fish have what there need to thrive and to be told that i dont care about my fish really upsets me! yes the 3foot was to small for him but as i sadi it was just a holding tank while his tank was moved and boy didnt he let me know that he didnt like been in the 3foot he was only in the tank a few hours as i thought it would be a lot less stressful for him

Sorry but i think you would have avoided alot of confusion and possible flaming if you had simply said "here's a pic of my asian red-tail in a holding tank before being moved into a bigger tank"

Also as said 5ft tank simply isnt big enough but if you are planning on building some tropical ponds i aplaud you as this is deffinately the right way to house monsterous catfish like the tiger shovelnose and the asian redtails. I just hope they are going to be at least 6x6ft! If you have any further info then feel free to share it.

Don't get too upset, this is the internet, we dont do a background check on every post before replying, first impressions are often the only impressions and if we are concerned about something most will always say, rather than being cautious incase we have got it wrong. Yes this may appear to be a daft way to go about it sometimes but i'd rather say something if i wasnt sure or happy!

Ben

 

[Dwarfs]

This pics a bit old and the syno is bigger now, but here it is

My featherfin syno (I have 4, 2 are currently huge and the same size) My largest Pim. pictus is about the same length (6") , but I have no pictures of it

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I'm not sure how fast they grow. Mine was 2 - 3" when I bought it in May (I think it was May, I only recently started keeping a log book) and now he/she is 9". They can live 20 - 25 years so I don't know if they reach adult size when they are young or what. Mine has grown a lot in a short space of time ! He is not tame yet, he swims away if he sees anyone near the tank. He is an "ordinary" catfish but I find him fascinating and funny to watch. Plus he keeps the tank clear of algae.

"Ahem" Easy way on how to tell how big a common/sailfin plec grows but not nesarsarily if it is either of them;

The problem with ID'ing common/sailfin plecs and working out how big they grow is mainly because the two species can hybridise with each other, which often happens as they are bred in huge muddy ponds where its not difficult for them to mix, the result being with very hard to ID or even how to work out how big the offspring will get as they are similar looking plecs even as pure breds.
Easy way to tell how big the plec will get is by the number of veins it has in its sailfin- if it has many, like yours does, it will most likely get towards the 2ft end of the size span, if it has few it will be closer to 1ft.
Sailfin and common plecs do the large majority of their growing in their first year of life, they tend to slow down alot after that, its very important to absolutely provide the adeqaute space/gallons plus some extra space and gallons as at this point in their lives they are most prone to getting stunted growth during their first year of life- your plec should grow about an inch a month.
Even though sailfin and common plecs are algae eating plecs by nature you will notice they go more and more off eating algae as they reach their max size, this is mainly because they need more protein than anything else in their diets and this is very difficult to obtain from algae- the easiest way to give your growing plec the protein it needs is to feed it a de-shelled prawn once a week followed by a removal of any prawn left and a small water change at the end of the day or the day after to prevent the food going off and causing water quality issues or harboring deseases like columnaris(although this is unlikely as long as the general state of the tank and water quality is good )- hope this info helps you and your plec.

ps: gorgeous looking plec you have there, i have 2common and 1sailfin plecs myself, love them to bits they are great fish :nods: .

 

[morgan]

Thanks. He/she is a nice looking fish. I have recently counted his number of rays on the dorsal fin, I read in this month's PFK that if they have 12 or more they are likely to get very big. If they are supposed to grow an inch a month in the first year he appears to be on target. He has also got wider. It was sold to me as a Bristlenose and the lfs did offer to have it back. I don't want to part with it and I am able to look after it properly. He is having a new tank anytime soon (my Xmas present). I am having a Juwel Rio 300. The dimensions are 48" long by 20" wide and I forget the depth but it is more than the present tank which is 15". As I am shortish I expect to get wet arms when I do maintenance. Excuse me working in inches I don't "get" metric very well. When he outgrows that (just before) I am thinking of building an indoor pond for him. What do you keep your large Plecos in? I remember reading that you were thinking of building an indoor pond. By the way, this hobby is very educational. I was talking about my new tank and my son (20) said to me you can't put any new fish in for a while you know!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah after moving into my new house(been here for abut a month now although things are very busy still with decorating and unpackng) i decided i didn't want an indoor pond, if i had got a bigger house i would have probably opted for one in the end but the only room where the floor would be able to take the weight and the pond wouldn't get in the way, didn't have enough space.
Currently my plecs are in a 5ft 125gal tank, i had to get it soon after moving in as 2 of my old tanks cracked during the move, either way it is a big upgrade in size for the fish but i would still like to get another large tank/s, although house work has been seriously slowing things down as far as getting the tanks sorted goes.

I have my 2 big plecs plus the sailfin which i adopted from a freind because it was in a 20gal at 10inchs long and my friend could no longer look after or afford to get an upgrade, idealy i want to either have another very large tank for the 2 common plecs to share or just 2 more 125gals so they can have a tank each, the sailfin will stay in the current main tank either way.
Either way though im sort or leaning towards the second option as although orignally i was intent on getting the one big tank, things have changed a bit; getting used to mainting the 125gal is much easier than i expected, i actually quite enjoy doing water changes now days as the layout of the house is a hundred times better than my old puny apartment, and although i have to stand on a bucket while cleaning the substrate the tank is still very convinient to clean .

As for info on building an indoor pond though, they are very easy to make and setup and much cheaper than buying a glass tank to put the fish in but of course you have to make sure the floor can take the weight just as you would o if you had a glass tank. Evaporation will be an issue without a hood on the pond, and a hood on the pond would look silly anyways, so you also have to make sure the place isn't going to get damp by making sure you have a dehumidifier(sp?) and water proof paint on the walls of some sort.
I do think indoor ponds look awesome though ! They can be so beautiful with having flowering indoor pond plants and waterfall or somthing in a little oasis in your house watching your fish swim about in joy .

 

[morgan]

We might be moving next year. If the house is big enough I will get my husband to build an indoor tank or pool. If it was a pool it would need a lid because catfish jump. Imagine a 2ft catfish jumping! It would have to be a deep pond. It would be built on the groundfloor so weight wouldn't be an issue. They have a custom built brick and glass tank at one of my lfs. They have a red-tailed catfish in there. He is huge! He lives by himself, I suppose because they are predators. I hope Woodie decides to come back, I would like to see the catfish and their ponds. Oh, I am going to get some prawns and see if my Pleco likes it. I put in some Apple Snail Food just before lights out and I expect he ate some of that.