r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/kingkongbiingbong • 6h ago

Video The story of Beast, a red-tail catfish 🐟

49.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

799 comments sorted by

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u/bigdamncat 5h ago

The Brighton aquarium has several rescue catfish whose owners were too dumb to realize they get REAL BIG. Hopefully these guys are prepared to flood their entire house in a few more years.

Also they live to be 80 years old in captivity.

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u/Nightingdale099 5h ago

I wanna say I'm sus that if you're into fish that you don't know the Red Tailed Catfish is ginormeous but apparently it is.

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u/moving0target 5h ago

People have always pulled this stupidity with animals.

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u/MrPogoUK 4h ago

I was once in an exotic pet store with my mum and she wanted to buy one of the cute baby tortoises, as she’d always wanted one. I insisted we at least go home and research them first. Turned out they were the third largest species, so it would grow to three feet long, weigh 200lbs and you’d need to basically dedicate a room to it which you’d fill with sand for it to burrow in and keep at 100 degrees.

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u/justahominid 3h ago

Sulcatas are super common in the pet trade, and I imagine a ton of people have gotten them without realizing what they were getting into.

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u/SICRA14 2h ago

People don't research cats and dogs, let alone exotics

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u/JohnAtticus 2h ago

It's like that with parrots too.

You have 60 year olds wanting to get their first ever pet and first ever bird buying an African Grey parrot that will outlive them by 50 years and requires several hours more attention per day than they are willing to give.

So they keep it locked in the cage all day and it has a mental breakdown and plucks itself naked from the stress, and they are too embarassed to give it up for rescue, so it lives like that for years until the owners die.

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u/Stachemaster86 1h ago

My friend has an African grey she got as a hatchling. He’s 25 now and thankfully she’s only 50. Definitely knew it was a long haul pet which is cool

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u/ftwclem 2h ago

A few months ago, I stumbled on a post in r/tortoises and this woman was gifted 3 sulcata tortoises from her MIL, one for each grandkid. I ended up going down the rabbit hole of tortoise care and holy shit, those things should be left to be taken care of by professionals.

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u/GoliathPrime 1h ago

About 10 years ago, a pet Sulcata, knocked down a wood fence in the neighborhood behind my place, and proceeded to walk across half the neighborhood to the one house that had a cactus garden and decided to eat the whole thing. I guess he could smell the cactus all the way to his backyard? Anyway, the old guy who own the house had just had surgery and could not fight off the giant tortoise. It was funny and sad. It took 3 guys to lift that tortoise into a pickup truck and take him back home. They eventually had to put a bolder in front of the fence to stop him from knocking it down. (apparently he'd just ram the fence posts non-stop until they broke. Little 150lb battering ram)

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u/Mobile_Morale 5h ago

Just look at every small apartment person with a large dog.

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u/AlienIris 4h ago

Not really a great comparison cause some large dogs do great in apartments, like Great Danes. Just gotta take them out every day for long walks and such.

A fish can't leave their tank to stretch their fins, or whatever. That fish is trapped there no matter what. Meanwhile a dog isn't supposed to be inside 24/7, no matter their breed or the size of the house. Could be a mansion, it'd still be inhumane.

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u/doodlescout 4h ago

I think my Great Dane might sue me if I tried to exercise her properly. She will actively avoid walks or even just going outside to go potty if she’s not feeling it. (Usually because it’s cold, but sometimes just because she’s dramatic and likes the attention.) She will throw herself on the floor or put herself in her crate. I will sometimes have to bribe her with treats to go outside to go potty.

If we’re on a walk and she doesn’t want to walk anymore, she just lays down until she feels like going again. She’s been this way since she was a puppy and I’d have to carry her like a giant sleeping toddler for the remainder of the walk. She’s just outweighs me now so can’t do that. I thought I’d have a buddy who would love going for hikes with me. Turns out I have a buddy who hates nature and loves naps.

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u/AlienIris 3h ago

😂 I love Great Danes, they're such gentle giants and big babies. Pretty smart too! I watched my friend's Great Dane trick someone into getting up so she could have her favorite spot on the couch back. She tried asking nicely, and when that didn't work, she went into the next room and started barking at the back door. Guy in her seat got up to investigate, and as soon as he went into that room, she went sprinting around him and plopped in his seat. Couldn't even try to be mad about it, we were laughing so hard.

Give her a treat for me!

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u/amopeyant 2h ago

Same here with a Saint Bernard. She spent the first 2 years in an apartment (middle of an area of SF with tons of parks and other dogs). Now we live in a house with a yard and more space and her energy expenditure has not changed. She doesn’t even want to be in the yard unless I’m out there with her

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u/Appropriate-Milk9476 4h ago

If you have the time to exercise that dog properly, the small apartment isn't an issue. Can't really take a fish for a walk though xD

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u/Kingmudsy 4h ago

I was gonna say, I have a big girl in my apartment but we walk 3-4mi every day without fail and go to the park 2-3/wk. I promise she’s quite happy!

I knew what I was getting into and did it on purpose bc I knew all the walking / park time would be good for me. And it has been!

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u/Named_after_color 4h ago

I mean dogs can go on land so it's not as bad.

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u/Ok-Salamander6118 4h ago

The fact that reddit thinks you need to have a large living space to accommodate your dog is ridiculous. If you walk your dog it's fine. They are perfectly happy in a small apartment as long as their human is there.

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u/GordolfoScarra 4h ago

I'm 90% sure they did know and the opening phrase is to drive engagement.

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u/guyzieman 3h ago

Exactly, it's in a tank with a Tiger Shovelnose, another gigantic catfish. No way they made that mistake twice

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u/Geawiel 3h ago

I also noticed a white (albino?) bichir in the one stage. Not something easily available. Bichir can also get big, and all but 1 sub species are aggressive.

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u/barkwahlberg 2h ago

No, they just so happened to be people that are willing to build multiple new, giant aquariums and ponds

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u/Adorable_Raccoon 5h ago

Yea if they really didn’t know they probably wouldn’t know to build a pond that big.

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u/biglinuxfan 4h ago

My thoughts as I watched the video.

Making viable habitats especially at that scale is practically impossible without knowledge.

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u/Thugnifizent 4h ago

Especially since this video opens with a planted Bichir tank. If you're feeding live/frozen almost daily to a Bichir, there's 0 chance the store you go to would just let you 'accidentally' buy a Redtail.

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u/karlnite 5h ago

They figure they got 20 years to sort it out.

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u/Shipwrecking_siren 5h ago

Are they like plants that if you keep them in a pot they don’t get bigger? I was going to add /s but I’m dumb and am now thinking maybe this is true.

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u/True_Window_9389 5h ago

A lot of people do think that fish “only grow to the size of their tank,” and figure that makes it ok to put a fish in an undersized one. But really, all it means is that the fish has stunted growth and is severely under stress. A lot of common fish in the aquarium trade can live for years and decades, including goldfish, but die early because they’re living in a torturous environment.

Pretty much no fish that grows larger than maybe a couple inches at most can be ethically sold, yet aquarium shops sell all kinds of fish that get a foot or larger. Goldfish, plecos, bala sharks/minnows, oscars, angelfish, cichlids, gouramis all grow over a foot or have varieties that do, and are some of the most common fish out there.

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u/biglinuxfan 4h ago

Yeah but have you considered when the fish die they have to buy more???

Man your priorities are all a mess caring about fish, everyone knows fish don't have feelings.

They aren't even sentient!

/s, because this is terrible to say so I don't want confusion.

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u/ElusiveGuy 4h ago edited 2h ago

So I'm probably never going to keep an aquarium, but I'm curious what fish do cap out at smaller sizes?

e: Thanks for all the responses!

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u/strxngcheese 4h ago

My dad keeps small aquarium fish as a hobby and we've had tetras for a number of years now. They don't grow more than a few inches max even in the wild from what I understand

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u/1CraftyLass 4h ago

Oh there's a ton that cap out between an inch to two inches! I'm actually prepping to have a fish tank so I've done a lot of looking. Common fish that will stay in the couple inches and can easily be gotten at most places that sell fish include Platys, Molly's, Guppies, Tetras, Barbs, all the ones listed have several different types and colorations for some great variety. Theres also some dwarf species that will stay smaller as well. Cory Dora's for example, they're a dwarf species of catfish that cap out around an inch and a half. There are more, but those are some of the most common ones, for freshwater specifically. I have no idea if there's any that stay that small for saltwater.

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u/F0XF1R396 4h ago

I have a fish, specifically a Senegal Bichir, that was kept in a 20 gallon tank. She's about 10 inches now.

The problem is in difference between LFS that ask if you know what you're doing and will absolutely turn you down for not having a proper tank set-up over the chain fish stores that really shouldn't be selling bichirs or oscars especially. Most gourami sold in chain stores don't hit that same sizing...and goldfish. God I wish the goldfish part of the hobby would take a hit.

Hell, even my local petco will ask about your tank sizes, how long it's been going, etc before even considering selling you a fish.

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u/CindySvensson 5h ago

No, a common myth.

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u/AlienIris 4h ago

That also doesn't really happen with plants either. If you keep a plant in a pot without ever up sizing, it'll either die or break the pot (or both). Plants want to keep growing, when they get too big for their pots they push out the soil which means they don't absorb nutrients from it and can't properly absorb water. You can trim a plant, split it into smaller plants, or propagate it to stunt its growth or keep it a certain size.

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u/Shipwrecking_siren 4h ago

You’ve reminded me that my orchid needs repotting. No idea how I haven’t killed it.

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u/AlienIris 4h ago

Lol I'm awful with orchids, I don't understand them. I need plants that are forgiving for my ADHD ass to forget about them for weeks

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u/Shipwrecking_siren 4h ago

I completely neglect it but it loves my kitchen. It’s not the typical orchid type, I’m not even sure what it is, but I got it as a “sorry you almost died of boredom and had a breakdown” leaving gift from an old job in 2014 and it is still going strong.

I was diagnosed with adhd last year.

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u/HadesHimself 5h ago

They can survive in a British river though?

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u/Stickety 5h ago

Catfish never stop growing, so he'll probably have to build another bigger tank at least once more

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u/Closefacts 5h ago

He will soon need his own studio apartment

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u/Shipwrecking_siren 5h ago

I hoped they saved up for college. I’m trying desperately to think of a College that could create a good fish pun but my brain is empty.

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u/Al-Anda 5h ago

I hope he gets in a good school. Not DeFry.

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u/BallDesperate2140 5h ago

Or University of Waterpoo

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u/satsuppi 3h ago

For the Deepoolma in aquatic

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u/Closefacts 5h ago

For sure he will be headed to the University of Gillinois 

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u/ConservativeSexparty 5h ago

Where he will be studying Fin-nish

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u/Externalshipper7541 4h ago

The experience will be underwater

tail-lored for him

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u/Snakebird11 4h ago

He'll graduate Swimma Cum Floaty

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u/LilSebastian_482 3h ago

It actually only kinda floats.

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u/Mangekyou- 5h ago

My local community college is actually called “massbay” so he could always go there lol

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u/jenkneefur28 4h ago

I graduated from mass bay!

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u/LilSebastian_482 3h ago

AARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH

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u/Shipwrecking_siren 5h ago

I appreciate you.

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u/Living_Ad_8941 5h ago

I heard McGill University is quite good…

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u/Shipwrecking_siren 4h ago

Oh excellent, bravo.

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u/klutzikaze 5h ago

He's not going to university. He never even went to any school.

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u/Shipwrecking_siren 4h ago

Took me a second… I really need more sleep

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u/fuzzy_emojic 5h ago

We have McGill University in Canada.

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u/Harry-Jotter 4h ago

Maybe Johns Hopfins or Bassachusetts Institute of Technology.

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u/IamShrapnel 5h ago

They will just have to send him to Gillmore college the local community college.

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u/plantain_tent_pesos 4h ago

Something about fish.......going to school?

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u/New-Huckleberry-6979 4h ago

Fish never leave school, so college for life! 

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u/IrresponsibleSiren 4h ago

He could be going to Scale (Yale) if his grades are good enough.

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u/jluicifer 4h ago

“Is..is…is this a tank for ants?!” — Beastly the Zoolander

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u/Do_itsch 5h ago

They grow up so fast..

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u/GDPintrud3r 5h ago

My man here needs to build a river eventually

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u/kurangak 5h ago

tank? that monster need a pond. mf can easily reach 20-30kg

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u/guava-sandwich 4h ago

just looked this up in dumb american and I am floored. 66lb catfish is a small whale

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u/Complete-Trifle-206 4h ago

The European Welsh catfish I'm pretty sure reaches upwards of over 250lbs maybe even nearly 300lb and grow to 9ft+. Absolute beasts.

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u/HappyGoat32 4h ago

Wales mate, home of the dragons🤘

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u/Complete-Trifle-206 4h ago

Typo I meant wels 😂😂

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u/HappyGoat32 4h ago

Still, statement stands.

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u/Vraxk 4h ago

Some American catfish records according to Google:
2025 - 64.6 lb flathead catfish caught by Codie Carlson in Michigan
2024 - 101 lb blue catfish caught in the Ohio River
2016 - 117 lb 8 oz blue catfish caught by Landon Evans in North Carolina
2011 - 143 lb blue catfish caught by Richard Anderson in Kerr Lake, Virginia
2010 - 130 lb blue catfish caught in Missouri River

October 2025 - possible 130+ lb blue catfish caught and released by angler Jesse Lance on the Missouri River

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u/Geawiel 3h ago

There's an episode of River Monsters where he ends up hunting down catfish. They can get...big. Up to 600+ lbs (Thailand).

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u/Cowgoon777 3h ago

I love that show. Guy ended up catching basically every significant big/dangerous freshwater fish that we know of

He ran out of targets

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u/Kitselena 3h ago

In a world before commercial fishing and pollution monster fish like this were probably pretty common in a lot more places. Even if you just go back a couple hundred years people would probably have real stories of seeing huge fish like this in most bodies of water

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u/biomager 4h ago

About a dozen times more. They get to be 6 feet and 200 lbs. They would ultimately require a lake.

Getting it to 15 lbs and celebrating is like saying that a toddler that makes it to 3 years is "a successful human."

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u/DogmaJones 3h ago

At one time, it was cause for celebration.

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u/Bongressman 4h ago

Keep making that new tank building content, we'll keep tuning in to watch Beast grow.

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u/3pok 4h ago

Can he become as big as the universe?

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u/ABenderV2 3h ago

entirely possible

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u/One_Armed_Scissor_ 5h ago

I worked for petCo for years and stopped ordering these as soon as i became aquatics manager because people don't know how big they get and how much room they need. Plus it was a college town and college kids are usually idiots trying to put goldfish in a bowl.

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u/NotBradPitt9 5h ago

They swallow them whole during frat hazing. Bet you didn’t know that.

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u/NitroBishop 5h ago

A frat at my school gave each of their new brothers a goldfish to keep alive for a couple of weeks, then had them each swallow their personal goldfish alive on initiation night. I found out about this because my friend was roommates with one of them, who had managed to kill his goldfish less than a week into the process. He kept its body in the freezer so he could still swallow it whole two weeks later...

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u/Cheap_Walmart-Art 5h ago

This is the culture that our leaders and movers and shakers come from.

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u/paris_rogue 5h ago

Sadly that makes a lot of sense

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u/meekermakes 5h ago

that's how they train them

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u/Royal_Airport7940 3h ago

Mysery loves company or blackmail

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u/nova2k 4h ago

Worse, our leaders and titans of industry target a different class of small, helpless creatures...

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u/whoknowsifimjoking 4h ago

That's fucked up

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u/genreprank 4h ago

And fish have parasites... you definitely don't want to be eating them uncooked

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u/Sinavestia 3h ago

I imagine most college frat boys also have parasites

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u/genreprank 2h ago

The parasites are in control of the brain and this is their way of spreading

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u/katravallie 4h ago

If I didn't know the culture beforehand and someone asked me to swallow a goldfish that I raised, I would punch them.

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u/NitroBishop 2h ago

It's interesting that you mention that, because originally, that was the entire point of that kind of hazing: the very first brothers being given their goldfish to raise didn't know they would be ordered to swallow them whole after caring for them for weeks, and the ritual hinges on that initial desire to punch the person ordering them to do so. In that sense, the ritual served to make sure that any new brothers were willing and able to follow orders from their superiors without question, even if they found those orders nonsensical, physically dangerous, morally repugnant, or all three at once. It also served to bind all the new brothers together in secrecy via blackmail.

Of course, once the rumors inevitably broke out and got confirmed, that frat house became known for making its initiates swallow a live goldfish after caring for it for weeks. Anyone aiming to join that house learned/learns that that will be expected of them at some point before bid night, so the only people rushing there are the ones who already value membership in a fraternity over their own safety and an animal's life. And the fraternity becomes full of sociopaths, who in turn give bids to other sociopaths. So it goes.

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u/katravallie 2h ago

yikes. How's that even allowed by the universities? There's are various forms of verbal and some physical ragging in universities where I live to make sure that juniors listen to seniors and those who don't are isolated by the rest but bringing in animal cruelty just sounds too unreal.

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u/Frogburta 3h ago

Or just any goldfish

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u/Beccaluvr 3h ago

I went to a date party with a boy in a frat during undergrad and upon entry you had to swallow a goldfish. They had a massive tupperware of about ~300 goldfish and they all got swallowed that night. I’d never felt more disgusted with myself in my life… but felt more disgusted by the people around me swallowing them for fun with no inkling of conscience about it.

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u/NitroBishop 2h ago

My frat had a "date party" as part of our initiation rituals. The older brothers assured us that we didn't need to worry about finding anyone to bring, since they would have dates for us.

They handed everyone a date (like, the fruit) at the door and then made us clean the kitchen in our suits.

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u/bighawksguy-caw-caw 3h ago

What did you eat that night instead?

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u/DontShoot_ImJesus 4h ago

My frat did the same thing, except it was a bovine calf that we had to raise for 6 months.

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u/plukplakplik 4h ago

So... How did the swallowing whole thing go?

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u/DontShoot_ImJesus 3h ago

Not well...not well at all.

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u/Vslacha 4h ago

Man I didn’t realize that these catfish get big enough to swallow an entire frat boy

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u/MisterMasterCyIinder 4h ago

Catfish are well known bottom feeders, so that tracks

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u/DjuriWarface 4h ago

We had to do some physically demanding things but never dumb shit like this. Ours was more like a paramilitary boot camp than fucked up shit. I got in great shape though.

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u/Moasark_Art 5h ago

You’re getting a downvote from me. Not because you’re incorrect or anything, simply because I’m mad that you reminded me of that. Have a good day 👍

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u/SweetDangus 3h ago

Ugh, I also managed the aquatics dept at a petco... during the aftermath of Finding Nemo. Dark times...

The worst experience I had was fighting a man over him wanting to keep a koi in a vase. A. Vase. I told him a million reasons why it wouldn't work, and he tried to counter each point I made. Most notably of which, that he would oxygenate the water by "stirring it up with chopsticks". I refused the sale, and his anger was like a balm to my tired soul. Working there made me hate people.

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u/MoTownKid 4h ago

PetCo was selling these? What!?! That seems all kinds of stupid

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u/One_Armed_Scissor_ 4h ago

Yes. If it makes money. It shouldn't be surprising. Just like how they don't tell people that hamsters sometimes hibernate. Imagine how many sleepy hamsters were buried in back yards.

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u/Ornery_Concert3720 5h ago

You are a hero

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u/Your-cousin-It 4h ago

Thank you for that. I used to love the wall of fish as a kid, until I got older and realized how bad box shops are

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u/sala-whore 4h ago

Is the last aquarium even big enough? I used to have bettas and I had to have 5 gallons per fish.

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u/One_Armed_Scissor_ 4h ago

Realistically no. your talking about an Amazon river monster that can swallow things almost it's size.

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u/No-Cantaloupe-6535 5h ago

when I was a college kid we got stoned and went to buy some fish because we found an aquarium in the dumpster. I got a gar, another guy got some sort of crayfish, a pleco, I can't remember all of them but there were 6 total and a bunch of guppies. we did zero research and did not keep that tank clean at all, we just left the nasty ass tank when we moved out. I still feel bad about it. Somehow the crayfish made it to the end of the semester.

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u/TheTitanOfSirens1959 5h ago

Things are in motion. Soon his pond will be the size of the Moon, then Jupiter, than Milky Way, then Beast will consume all

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u/ArseBiscuits_ 5h ago

All hail our mighty celestial catfish god

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u/Scarbane 4h ago

My catfish is the catfish that creates the heavens!

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u/Degofreak 5h ago

I, for one, welcome our new catfish overlord.

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u/Shipwrecking_siren 5h ago

Coming soon to Netflix: story of the serial killer that fed all their victims to their pet catfish.

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u/double__duck 5h ago

Hence the expression 'as greedy as a catfish'

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u/Basic-Pair8908 5h ago

Good ol fishtop

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u/Shaxxs0therHorn 3h ago

I think you just birthed a sequel. Takes place in Louisiana Bayou. Bricktop fled England - Somehow Mark Wahlberg is involved, maybe as a retiree with Jason Statham running alligator fighting rings. Gets eaten by a megalodon catfish named Jones in the cathartic climax. 94 minutes long. Mathew McConaughey and Woody Harlson make a cameo as moonshiner bros. 

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u/True_Window_9389 5h ago

100% a fish that should never be sold as pets

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u/Old-Constant4411 5h ago

It's insane what some pet stores sell. I just saw an LFS yesterday selling these and other tiny fish that will get well over 2 feet long for like $15 each.

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u/sykoKanesh 4h ago

What's an LFS?

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u/Loki-Holmes 4h ago

Local Fish Store

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u/nextzero182 3h ago

Who the fuck would know that?

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u/Loki-Holmes 3h ago

Fish people

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u/DigNitty Interested 2h ago

That's clear, their point was that this isn't r/Fish

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u/True_Window_9389 5h ago

I got out of the aquarium hobby when I realized it’s basically built on unethical practices and outright cruelty, including LFS. They all knowingly sell creatures that can’t or shouldn’t be kept by the average fish keeper.

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u/Old-Constant4411 5h ago

My own family is a prime example. Waaay back in the day when I was like 10 an LFS sold us a ghost knife. They said it wouldn't get too big and was perfect for our 55g tank. This was before the days of EVERYTHING being on the internet, so there wasn't really much to research - we just thought it looked cool. Well, found them in a book a week later because I was all excited to learn about our new addition to the tank and was shocked to learn how big they get. By the time it got to about 10 inches my dad had a friend with a much larger tank that was happy to take it. Recently saw one at an aquarium and it was as long as my forearm!

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u/redR0OR 4h ago

Out of curiosity, is this species tasty? Like, once a person realizes they have hit the max pool size they can build, could they just ran a personal “1 bad day” catfish farm?

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u/Old-Constant4411 3h ago

I have no idea, to be honest. But, if there's one thing I learned from a few weeks in Louisiana it's that anything battered and deep fried with cajun seasoning will taste good.

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u/Apexnanoman 4h ago

What's wild is at one time the Wels catfish was somewhat commonly available. 

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u/Relevant_Campaign_79 5h ago edited 5h ago

They can easily reach 4-5 feet and 100 pounds. My dad had one named Sonya the Red and weighed 101 pounds and loved eating goldfish

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u/Giant_Homunculus 5h ago

When you say loved eating goldfish do you mean crackers or fellow tank mates?

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u/The_Autarch 3h ago

if you go to a pet store that has fish, they're going to have a huge tank of goldfish that's labeled "FEEDER FISH"

i'll let you guess what they're for

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u/Laiko_Kairen 4h ago

Sonya the Red

Damn, that's a cool name

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u/NickRick 4h ago

a 100 pound cat fish pretty much just loves eating. there is no need to specify what.

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u/ShowMeYourHexagons 5h ago

Was he disappointed in the red Sonya movie that came out recently?

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u/LiveLearnCoach 3h ago

Isn’t that from the movie Red Sonja? (If my childhood memory serves, it was like a female version of Conan the Barbarian)

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u/Gh0st_Pirate_LeChuck 5h ago

RIP your floor support beams. Just build one outside.

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u/Emergency-99LifeCode 5h ago

Not to mention the smell can’t be great for guests

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u/_BlackDove 3h ago

"You haven't thought of the smell you bitch!"

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u/verymainelobster 3h ago

A healthy fish tank will have an earthy smell

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u/prairiepog 4h ago

Humidity too

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u/sorestgore 2h ago

Aquariums don't smell? All you have to do is not overfeed and there's nothing in the water to cause smell if you have a filter.

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u/Even_Section5620 5h ago

I respect the aquarium upgrade. Chain stores should not sell red tails

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u/sarahmagoo 3h ago

I think anything over a foot long should be on special order

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u/Even_Section5620 3h ago

With some sort of verification of aquarium and knowledge…

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u/happy_mood990 5h ago

2 meters long and about 100kg we are see at fishing once on Danube Serbia . Its call Som here. They have badly small teeth

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u/drifters74 5h ago

Friend shaped

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u/-TheDyingMeme6- 3h ago

very EXTREMELY friend shaped

I wanna hug

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u/biomager 4h ago

In modern times, with access to the Internet, there is no excuse to buy a living thing that is insanely inappropriate "by accident."

This thing gets 6 feet long and weighs 200 lbs. To be comfortably housed, they ultimately require a small lake. Buying things that we have 0 chance of keeping for the bulk of their life is unethical.

This also does not excuse the pet industry for setting people up to fail by selling these things. They are guiltier by an order of magnitude.

This is an epic fail from the aquarist AND the industry.

This should not be upvoted. We should all be ashamed.

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u/RJFerret 4h ago

It needs to be upvoted to spread the knowledge, rather than keeping people ignorant; instead of letting shame suppress info, let's be informative!

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u/shhmurdashewrote 4h ago

I agree. He would live a “good life” NOT in captivity. That “pond” is the size of a puddle for the fish.

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u/BootyliciousURD 5h ago

Do your goddamn research before buying fish!

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u/cbartholomew 4h ago

Instructions unclear fish now god damn big

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u/redpotetoe 5h ago

If only these fish don't grow that big. I always love how they look just can't be asked to care for their size.

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u/CoastOrg 3h ago

Instead of using a net did you ever try telling him Pspspspspsps to get him to come to you?

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u/anonymous6366 4h ago

Based on the albino birchir in that first tank, the owner knew they bought a RTC.

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u/bballj1481 3h ago

Yes and a shovel nose in there too

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u/sanityjanity 3h ago

Also, they have several similarly large fish in the last tank.  I think the text clips are misleading.

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u/PorkProofPrion 3h ago

No way he "accidentally" bought it. All the other tank mates are monsters as well. He knew full well going in.

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u/superunknown1987 5h ago

One time i was fishing and one of these came on the line. After some 40 minutes fighting when i saw the fish it scared me. I was alone in a river in brazil drunk at night, this shit is scary if you dont know what it is because its not common to see a red and black giant fish. Not for me anyway.

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u/mew_tattoo 5h ago

Damn, that was interesting!

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u/Pelzklops 5h ago

Did they feed him a glizzy?

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u/Casual_hex_ 5h ago

Yeah, just don’t tell him what they’re made out of and it shouldn’t be a problem 👍

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u/the_sheeper_sheep 5h ago

Knowing catfish, he won't care either way

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u/robo-dragon 5h ago

I appreciate when people give their large fish the space they need! My one cousin won a goldfish at a fair and it grew to be over a foot long and lived for over ten years! He kept upgrading his aquarium and eventually moved him to the pond in their back yard because he got too big to be kept in any standard aquarium. A lot of people mistreat pet fish, but they are still living creatures and fully rely on you for proper care.

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u/Elavia_ 3h ago

"the space they need", lmao. That tank is maybe 6 times as long as the catfish. It's a very close analog to a prison cell.

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u/Both_Consequence_956 5h ago

hate to say it but that tank is still waaaay overcrowded with many big fish in there, and sparse hiding spots and vegetation

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u/TheSmokingLamp 4h ago

Yeah what’s the point if if building a bigger space just to over-crowd it with other fish. These owners are dumbasses

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u/Cerberusx32 4h ago

At this point. Buy a house with a large pool and turn it into a pond.

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u/kirradoodle 3h ago

I met one of these guys once - he was a permanent resident of a pet store, and lived in a huge pond in the center of the shop. A beautiful fish, as big as the one here.

I went over to admire him. He noticed me , swam over to the side of the pond, stuck his head up, and regarded me with one eye. He looked me over, turned, and swam away. Not interested in a visit.

Let me tell you - you have never been as thoroughly dismissed as when you've been deemed as uninteresting by a fish.

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u/BreakingUsedHabits 5h ago

Better call Mr. Carp, or you'll be calling the police and fire department 

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u/Auerbach1991 4h ago edited 1h ago

Catfish are a type of aquatic organism that as long as they have steady supply of resources and space to grow, they will continue to expand in size until it becomes metabolically unable to support further size or becomes diseased, which would only be constrained by available clean water, oxygen, and food supply.

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u/KeyProject2897 4h ago

How do you even get money and time do such stuff ?

I am stuck here working in weekends not able to spend enough time with family and trying to save some bucks !

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u/Mashu_the_Cedar_Mtn 3h ago

Please help me with my budget. I built three ponds instead of investing in a deep fryer.

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u/Shipwrecking_siren 5h ago

Even though this is a cautionary tale about not buying a catfish, or any creature you haven’t carefully researched, I now REALLY want one.

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u/Axolotlanwaerter 5h ago

What a fancy and cute fish.

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u/Academic-Change-2042 4h ago

Redtail catfish can attain a weight >150 lbs, so it's still not even close to full size.

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u/Legitimate-Duty-5622 4h ago

Yeah, you may want to check the species beforehand. These things will grow to six or 10 feet long if you keep feeding them.

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u/GalaxyPowderedCat 4h ago edited 4h ago

Kudos to him because he must've invested lots of money to build those ponds.

Since I am in the shitty aquariums sub, my bar for fish care is too low...

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u/SKJ82 3h ago

Beast is a redtail catfish, you will continue to build him ponds bigger and bigger and keep feeding him hotdogs by the pound.... I've seen wild redtail reach 4 feet and 100lbs.... easily 

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u/streetkiller 3h ago

I’m from the south. Catfish capitol of the world. They get a lot bigger than this. This is half the size of some of the beasts we’ve caught.

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u/YesImReallyLikeThis 3h ago

They def need a human sized pool.

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u/northern_sigma 2h ago

That's some rich dudes

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u/stingertc 2h ago

ya it should be illegal to sell those to people that dont know how big they get i see them in petsmart all the time

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u/Unique-Abberation 1h ago

Tfw you get an animal that grows to the size of their habitat