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hi i have a 20 inch red tail that seems to like to be petted and also likes swimming agianst my hand if i put it in the tank . from my experience this is a common thing for redtails to do however i read on another website that this is not recommended but does not say why . other than making sure that my hand and arm is clean prior to putting it in tank is there anything bad about this ? thanks in advance

I don't think it's likely to harm either of you.

as long as you're not going to be too unhappy if he mistakes a finger for food and gives you a good chomp. ;)

S. Allen wrote:mistakes a finger for food and gives you a good chomp

The Asian RTC certainly does that.

My bullhead will bite me from time to time mistaking me for food. Once he realizes that it is attached to something MUCH lager than he (once I wiggle it) he lets go. Its quite a shock because they hit kinda hard but hes only 6 to 7 inches so its not painfull.

i pet im red tail when i feed it with goldfish coz i heard that if u do it, it will rememeber u and that u can teach it tricks.

im red tail is onli 8inches so i aint got nuthing 2 worry about .

wot tank size do u keep ur 20inch red tail in may i ask???

thanx
jon

heh, I've got a 14 inch tigrinus that hurts, no real problems from teeth, it's just a pad of very very short sharp teet but he hits like a ton of bricks... like watching a shark hit a tuna head on the discovery channel except it's your finger and there aren't any cameras rolling...

my red tail is in a 360 gallon tank for now but i am going to build a large pond in my garage using bricks and a liner from home depot . they have a display pond that is 15 feet long and 10 feet wide that is full of huge koi . i am just going to copy what they did and being in my garage it will be easier to heat it in the winter

the only possible problem can be removing or damaging part of the mucus membrane, which protects the fish from injury and illness. Other than that, if you're gentle, and the fish doesn't mind, it's ok.

I know I'm probably going to get yelled at but I'll ask anyways. My RedTail catfish is like 8 or 9 inches long and he is only in a 75 gallon tank. Where in the world do you all find these huge 360 gallon tanks. I would love to keep him and watch him grow up to several feet. Will my RedTail be alright for a little while in the 75 gallon tank or will it stunt his growth. I also thought about putting him in my pond but I live in Indiana and I figured the winter months would kill him. I also wouldn't want him to grow up to like four feet and eat every fish in my pond.

I also meant to ask what you guys feed your fish. I know that my eight inch RedTail goes through goldfish like it's nobody's business and it gets pretty expensive to feed him, what do you feed your twenty inch RedTail? I have thought about buying several goldfish and just keeping them in a smaller tank and trying to get them to breed. Does anyone do this and can give me a little info as to what I would need and how hard they are to breed etc... Or should I breed something bigger so I won't have to feed him as often? Any help is greatly appreciated.

even a 360 will be undersized for an adult redtail. As to the place to find the tanks, it's simple, http://www.glasscages.com makes glass ones of good size for reasonable prices, or you can have local acrylic tank makers do it for you, normally expensive that way though ($10 a gallon or so) or you can make your own with acrylic... But that's not cheap either. I've priced acrylic for a 470 and it runs just short of $1k, plus cement, bulkheads, and whatever else needs to go into it, plus filtration and heating, and lighting too (can go cheap there and do a bunch of $8, 4 foot flourescent shop lights). Last option is an indoor pond, can be made with lumber for shape and a pond liner for waterproofing, or bought as a stock tank that is free-standing. Stock tanks seem to run about a buck a gallon, and I haven't seen anything over 300 gallons or so.

Food is going to be expensive, but stop feeding goldfish. They're more harm than good IMO, as they can carry parasites and diseases, and are not the most nutritous food out there anyway. If you insist on feeding live fish, breed your own guppies, I wouldn't even try goldfish, the life cycle is so slow with the fish it's likely not worth it unless you have thousands and thousands of gallons of ponds. Live fish really is not necessary though, I won't feed anything I keep live fish. Things that work great are earthworms/nightcrawlers, fresh or frozen fish, chopped to the proper size, shrimp, scallops... for fresh foods those are great. Your fish would benefit from one or a few pellets being included too though, just standard bottom feeder pellets. If you have trouble feeding pellets, try Hikari's Sinking Carnivore Pellets, great stuff, I taught my rays to hand feed on those before any other food.

i have done improvements on the pond since those pics were shot . the filter pads from my big tank are all out now and that white intake line is plumbed from the outside now (i added an 1/12 bulk head fitting to the side ) i will post newer pics when i get a chance