New CatFish

[bishamon]

Hi
Im new to catfish and I have a Redtail and a Tiger Shovelnose,I really like them both they are small at this point in time but Im wondering if they are nocturnal feeders and what should I be feeding them that is point their current diet consists of shrimp pellets,blood worms,frozen shrimp and small feeder guppies.Any info or suggestions would be apperciated.
Thanks

[Mod edit: Moved to "South American Catfish (everything else)" --Mats]

[Marc van Arc]

Hello & welcome to PC.
There are loads of questions like yours already on the forum. PLs scroll down the South American Everything else forum and/or use the search option. Mind you, keeping these fish is sometimes regarded upon as somewhat controversial and so are the responses one may get from fellow members.
You have some reading to do . Good luck.

Mods, pls move this post to the proper (SA everything else) forum.

[Richard B]

Welcome to the site

your feeding is ok at the moment, perhaps the only thing i'd include would be earthworms as these are relished by many many species.

I the wild the RTC is known to feed on fish, freshwater crabs & soft fruit. If you intend on keeping these as adults & can provide the correct housing for them, you could try whole prawns, crab, freshwater fish (not saltwater like mackerel), plums, large earthworms etc. Adults will not need feeding every day & ca close eye should be kept on water quality.

As Marc says, there is absolutely loads of info like this in the SA everything else forum

[bishamon]

Hi
Thanks for the info,just 1 question,should I chop up the earth worms because the the fish are still very small?
thanks again

[Richard B]

Depends how big the worms are, but i suspect if you're asking the answer is yes!

[bishamon]

ty

[MatsP]

Can I just point out that it is MUCH easier to keep these if you get them into the habit of eating dry food mainly, and offer frozen or live food only as a treat. Fish that will ONLY eat live food can be a real hazzle as they get bigger. Not to mention that dry food is much less likely to carry something that transfers to your fish - feeder fish is never cared for very well.

--
Mats

[DutchFry]

I hope you realise that you will need a big indoor pond within a year to keep these monster fish correctly!

when these fish are mature, feed them only once a week. overfeeding tends to be the cause of death in most cases!

one last thing, keep your nitrate levels as low as possible and provide a strong current!

[medaka]

Don't feed oily fish. like trout, The RTC especially breaks down solid food quickly; and oily type foods, tend to make the ammonia level in the urine higher, when compared to feeding 'white' fish like Cod. You can often see the urine from large cats fed on a oily type food as it is being expelled as it becomes bright yellow. A high level of ammonia will have a detrimental effect on both the fish and the filter bacteria, resulting in damaged or dead catfish.

I used to feed the large cats that I looked after, once every third day; (they are predators and don't need to feed every day), sometimes once every other day in small specimens. I also didnt feed them until about two hours before lights out. I did this due to two things:
1) Sometimes the catfish vomited their food up, this did not happen often but it can happen on occasion and if its missed can quickly turn the water sour.
2) I always did water changes the following morning of a matter of course, so as to negate any ammonia problems that might have arisen when the cats had digested their food.

[grokefish]

Hooray another person buys a red tail without finding out about them first!
I personally leave it 24 hours before I change the water.
Get a copy of Dr David Sands book "The emperor of the Amazon and all your answers will reveal themselves.

Matt