Red tail catfish

[Red tail catfish]

Hi how much do you think it wold cost to house a red tail catfish for life? Oh and how much per week for food would it cost? Thanks

[Viktor Jarikov]

I may suggest paying a visit to this guy and have a good talk with him: he had rescued at least half a dozen of big RTCs http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... it=+rescue

RTC is not an asian catfish. It is South American (SA).

[Suckermouth]

RTC is not an asian catfish. It is South American (SA). Hope this is just a honest mistake and not an indication that you do not know the first thing yet about what you are researching .

He may not know, but there's no need to come down on him for it. Alternatively, he could be talking about the

Asian Red Tailed Catfish

.

Hi how much do you think it wold cost to house a red tail catfish for life? Oh and how much per week for food would it cost? Thanks

This depends on a lot of variables, everything from how much your electricity and water cost to how cold it is where you are. Furthermore, "for life" is a long time, and no one knows for sure how long redtail catfish live (although you should expect it to be a long time if you care for it well). An exact number can't be pinned down. Although a valid question, it isn't one that can be answered easily. But consider these following costs:

"Start-up costs" ie. a large tank, filtration, heater, other hardware
"Regular costs" ie. water, electricity, food for the fish

[Viktor Jarikov]

Right, of course. I deleted it before seeing your post but still not quickly enough! Sorry, Red Tail Catfish. I meant well but got carried away. Please, never mind my lapse of judgment.

[Richard B]

Well as a quick pointer, you'll need a tank/pond at least 16 foot by 8 foot footprint by 6 foot deep (perhaps a little more). Adequate filtration & heating for this volume of water, with running costs and food for 40-50 years maybe

I'm not trying to put anyone off but if people are going to do stuff like this it needs to be done well

[MatsP]

Right, so without knowing WHICH red-tail catfish this is, it becomes quite hard to get good numbers. Suffice to say that you are looking to build an indoor heated pond of a pretty decent size [unless you live in a tropical country]. Since an indoor swimming pool is similar to a pond, the price of around £100k from the page below is probably a reasonable starting point:
http://www.indoorpools.co.uk/about.html

It may be that the £100k pond is a bit larger than what you need for a red tail, but I doubt the price goes that much lower by making the pond smaller. The measures Richard gives would be around 20 cubic meters (20000 liter or rougly 5000 gal).

There are probably a few filter, water circulation and a few other such things, but in the whole scheme of things, probably only a few thousand pounds or so.

Add to this that you need to keep it heated to around 25'C. To heat a 20 cubic meter tank will probably need around 5-10kW for approximately 25% of the time (averaged over the year - in winter you need more, in summer you need less). To make the calculation simple, let's pick the number if the middle, 7.5kW * 365 days * 24h * 0.25 = 16245 kWh - at current prices, 1 kWh = 12p, so around £2000 for electricity per year - of course, this will probably increase above levels of inflation for the future. Gas heating is more expensive to install, and may need a bit more maintenance, but will probably pay itself off in a few years. However, it's nowhere near free, and who knows what the gas prices will be in future... So I'd not count on it being sufficiently cheaper to make a huge difference.

Next, you'll need circulation and filter pumps. Given that a 5500 lph pond pump uses around 200W, you probably want three of of these, so 600w * 365 * 24h = 5200 kWh * 12p = £600 per year.

Lighting isn't essential, but will make it nicer. I'd reccon another £500-1000 per year. Say £750.

Water: Making 25% water changes per week on a 20 cubic meter is 5 cubic meter. Current water rates is around £3 per cubic meter, so £15 * 50weeks = £750 per year.

Food: At a reasonable size, probably around 1-2kg "meaty" and another 1-2kg vegetables per week. Say £10 per week = £500 per year. [For one fish, obviously, you could keep multiple fish, likely without much extra cost above the food].

So, around £4500 or so per year. I'm sure I've missed a few things out.

Given that these fish should live for at least 25, probably 50 years, the cost is somewhere around £100000-200000 for the "keeping" of the fish.

--
Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

That's a gem, Mats.

Thanks Mats, Richard, and Milton for making this forum look better to a new kid on the block than a forum populated by arrogant idiots like me.

[MatsP]

Viktor, I assume you have done some similar calculations for your public aquarium setup... How does my calculatiokns compare - assuming you can share your info without revealing too much inside info on your business project, that is...

--
Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

If one wishes, they are welcome to take a look at my posted update as of today: top of the 2nd page http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 22#p232222

It addresses most issues Mats estimated (but the focus is different and therefore it is not directly in sync with this discussion).

~$10,000 for a 13'x13'x3' 3750 gal FRP tub with two 8'x3' acrylic windows. No bio-filtering. No heating. No big pumps, just well+RO pumps (2000 gal a day; ~$100 a month run almost 24/7) and aerators (linear compressor, maybe $30 a month of electric). Lighting is minimal, perhaps $50 a month.

Fish food: dry pellets, ~50 lb bags at $20-$40 a bag and whatever I catch out of the ocean as well as rain water sewer ditches around here (that's legal to keep, of course). Probably under $200 a year at the start.