Joker and his massage therapy

I have been working on my RTC, Joker, with his gill curl. It has improved a lot on one side, but the other is still curled, yet not as bad as before. I wanted to share some more pictures of him in his therapy bucket, but he's now outgrown it, so we have upgraded to a storage container :D

Very nice. Looks like he is very photogenic. How big will he get?

wow. crazy.

RTCs have the potential to reach about 4 feet, but he will probably max out around 3 feet. They usually don't hit 4 ft in captivity though, usually in the wild. He is very photogenic and doesn't mine his sessions. With his facial deformity, it makes me think he will still grow large, but not as large. (I'm prepared if he does though. I researched this fish up and down before starting to look for one, and he and the others WILL get a big pond.) He was given to us by our LFS as a rescue, due to his deformity while searching for one around town. We got him in August last year, so he is almost a year old :)

I have one also... they are awesome fish ...HUGE but awesome

agreed. lol i just took some more pics on my phone at lunch. He's my fish puppy for sure. He does NOT have the personality of a normal RTC. He's soooo sweet. When our channel cat killed our frontosa, most RTC would take the chance at a free meal, but not him. He didn't touch it, the channel tried.... We have a 2 inch clown pleco thats been in with him since he was the same size. That pleco has to be about 5 years old now. But he's never been bothered by Joker. I truly think his deformity has to do with his sweet nature. I have hand fed him since he was tiny too. He's never once mistaken my fingers, b/c he"drifts and sniffs"in front of my hands first, then gently takes in his food. Who knows lol. Let me get these pics posted for ya'll.

My RTC likes to hide in a big decor rock but he is really to big for it.So I am going to have to take the decor out of the tank.

BFinley wrote:

My RTC likes to hide in a big decor rock but he is really to big for it.So I am going to have to take the decor out of the tank.

If you want to give him a bigger, yet cost effective cave, you can buy a large piece of PVC pipe and cut it to length. You could even make the outside more appealing by decorating it, (glued sand, rock etc). How big is your monster? Joker lays on top of caves lol.

He is only 3.5" not that big yet but will get big soon.

:D Oh wait till he hits about 6-8" Their personality starts forming and they really develop. The growth spurts also start happening then.

Cool what do you feed yours?

I give mine shrimp and beef heart

I tried to hold up a paper towel role to give you an idea of his size. My husband had the tape measure at work, so I didn't have one lol.







An older one with his girlfriend Lima :)

I feed mine night crawlers and krill.

What size tank do you have all them in?

When I first got him he would only eat frozen bloodworm or shredded shrimp. I fed him that until he was about 6 inches, when I felt that he had enough meat on him to start converting him to pellet. I would stuff Massivore, veggie sticks, krill pellet, and other stuff I fed to my other guys, into pieces of shrimp, beefheart (real not the cube pack) or tilapia. But he would spit out the pellet and eat the frozen goodness. It took about 2 weeks of offering only pellet, no frozen to him before he accepted it. He had to watch everyone else gorge while he stayed hungry. He caved So he finally converted to pellet, but he still of course has fish, shrimp, prawn, etc. They need a variety of foods. You can get talapia fillets frozen and individually packed for like 6lb for $6 at walmart. If you try shrimp, just make sure its raw, not cooked and doesn't have any sodium in it. Night crawlers (if bought) and krill or any frozen fish "packs" will get expensive, that was the main reason for converting mine.

Right now they are in a 150 wide, but we are house hunting and looking for a property either with a pool for me to convert, or we will be building a pond for them. My husband wants koi... I said "well you enjoy your pond, I have my monster pond". The two won't meet lol. I have been eying a space in our apartment that would fit a nice sized indoor pond. Who needs a computer desk right? It had no computer on it, and has a 20 gallon tank on it (being torn down lol)

Seems like he deserves a big pond with some friends. Once you get that started post some pics of the process

KMX,
My promise to these fish was a better home from the day I got them. My dream since I was a little kid was to have a pond that I could swim with my fish in. Though I had wanted a smaller Giraffe Cat, I felt so bad for Geoffrey in his tiny40 gallon tank, already at 14 inches. My ID's will join them as well, and I plan on rescuing a couple Pacu that people made the mistake of getting. There is also a Monsterfish Rescue site that I will look into participating in later on. ( http://www.monsterfishrescue.com/index.php?pr=Home_Page) You better believe I will be posting pics the progress :)

very nice. cool stuff.

Joker is a cutie!

One of these days I will have a real big tank to house all the big fish I want.If I have my Giant Gourami by then he will go in there also.

I always have to tell myself no when I see a GG. One has been cramped in a stores tank waiting to be sold, and lord knows I want him, but I know I couldn't right now. Your GG is a beautiful fish. How old is he?

He is around 3 years old and the last time I measured him he was 13".He can eat like a pig.I have only seen 2 GG in my area in 20 years so when I saw him I had to get him.

I love that you have a history with him. Makes the bond more special. He looks fat and happy!

He is fat I feed him all the time.He is temorary tank rite now.I am trying to find a bigger tank for him.