An Update On That Catfish

I used some photo's of a rather large catfish for the PhotoHunt weekly theme of 'dark' a several weeks ago so I thought I would update you on the catfish. Of course there is no way to tell exactly how many catfish there are in the pond, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there is only one the size of that one I caught and returned to the pond.

Channel catfish do not reproduce very well in small ponds unless they have suitable nesting sites. They need cavity type structures such as holes in a bank, rock formations, or perhaps old downed trees with holes or protected areas under them.

We have not added any structure to simulate this environment in the pond so any of the large catfish could possibly be from the original stocking of the pond (or perhaps the rare second generation) and that was years ago. GG stocked with some small catfish during the spring, but it will likely take several more months before they reach a respectable size of 1 to 2 pounds.

During the summer a very large catfish would come up to eat with the carp, turtles, and smaller fish. We would only see one at the time and as you can see it is appears healthy and hungry.

And here is a very short video of the catfish chowing down on the fish food.

Please Note: This video includes audio that can be adjusted on the video. The audio is not excessively loud, but you may want to adjust the initial volume settings depending on your situation. Also, you can view a full-screen version by selecting the small icon immediately to the left of 'vimeo' in the bottom right corner of the video block. You can return to the normal view by pressing [Esc].

Catfish from BakerWatson on Vimeo.
Hopefully next year we will have many more catfish coming up to eat. A steady diet of high-protein food can double their growth rate in the first few years. If we stock new fingerlings next spring I expect we will use some type of enclosed cages to protect them from predators during the first weeks/months. This will also give us a chance to feed them regularly to promote faster growth before we release them into the pond.