My Redtail Catfish

This guy has been feeding of Tilapia rests and weighing in at 14 KG's !!

Regards,

Jaques

 

Cool Jacques,been telling the other TASA members about this monster of yours - nice t0 see in first pic how he has put on weight since you first got him - spekvet en gesond....Now to fix that monster tank of yours...

 

Nice one! Mine is still far from that size, but is picking up size gradually. About how long is your fish in total?

 

It measures currently 105cm.

 

Are you feeding it dog pellets?

 

I own a Tilapia Hatchery and feeds him also the Tilapia grower pellets. But he prefers to feed on the Tilapia mortalities that I cut open and throw into the water

 

In what do you keep him?If I were to get one what advice would you give me?

 

a big tank or a small dam. and that is a big red tail i only saw small ones.

 

Currently it is living in a heated cement dam in my hatchery. To keep one normally starts in a small tank(Buying a small redtail of 8cm from your LPS), then a bigger tank, then a bigger tank, then a bigger tank, and then you have this huge fish which is actually, to be honest, becoming a nuisance. But i love him and therefore would go out of my way to make him comfortable. I have this idea of finding a 20mm thick piece of glass about 4m x 1m to build him a cement tank of about 5m x5m. GLASS IS SO EXPENSIVE !!

 

He is HUGE!!! Biggest I have seen. He is a lucky fish! Most people would have lost interest in him long ago! Keep at it!!!

 

most people dont even keep it until it gets that big. it is realy a nice fish. how old is it

 

The @#$## just swallowed the Clown Loach!! Really need to build him his own tank !!!!

 

Wow . .that is a call for some attention

That's still a prize fish bro . . .

TM

 

how big do they get?what size pond will I need for one?Food is not a problem my school pond is full of kerpers and I have a friend who owns a hatchery.How many times a week does hew get fed and how many talapia.I am really interested in getting one.I have a huge front yard.How to heat his pond and what filters do you use?

 

Nobody was replying, so I'll give you some info...

Biggest ones get about 1.2 meters, but the majority of the aquarium specimens between 50 and 90cm. The two biggest I've seen (in the flesh) was a monster of roughly a meter at Pretoria Zoo aquarium, and then a privately owned one at about 60cm.

You need a truly massive system to keep these guys, as demonstrated by ZS6WDL, not only because they get big and swim quite a bit, but also because they eat a lot and put out massive amounts of waste. Give or take minimum volume of a pond/tank for an adult fish should be at least 10 000 litres. Conventional heating for this volume won't work, so you might want to look into solar heating (it's one of the cheaper options) as well as insulation. Pond filters with good amounts of bio media are ideal for this fish and others like it.

You'll feed it roughly 2 to 3 times a week; basic ruling being you feed it until it looks plump, and then don't feed it again until the day after it's stomach returns to the normal size.

It does sound like a lot of hard work, but these guys make awesome pets

 

Do you have one?

 

I do, but I got mine "second hand" (from another aquarist). He was going to die otherwise, so I had to take him on. I've become quite attached to him though

 

in what do you keep him and what is his size?

 

As stated earlier in the thread, he weighs in at 14kg and is 105cm long....Housed in ZS6DWL's Tillapia hatchery where he has a pond to himself - total system is like 60 000 liters....not for the faint hearted...lol

Yes Salmon,know the one @ Pretoria zoo,this one defnitely has more "weight" on him.....

 

At the moment he is about 20cm - and sadly he'll probably remain that way. When I got him he already had gill curl and stunted growth.

For now he is in a 600 litre tank.