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Looking for catfish keepers

CallmeSweetie

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My boyfriend who seems to know what he is doing although I'm not sure! Has dug out a huge hole and is planning on putting plastic down and making a fishing pond, whilst all this is all going on he ordered 300 baby catfish! They have a large tank out side and enough room, they seem happy but sometimes it's like they play dead? just float aimlessly around and then all of a sudden they swim away again, just like nothing happened, is that normal?

Does anyone have any experience with young catfish, it would be gratefully received, when i ask Mr. Grumpy he never explains it to me :)

:fish1:
 

Aubrey

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What kind of catfish and how many gallons is the pond?
 

CallmeSweetie

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the pond i don't know how many gallons but it's like 26m x 20m, still a hole in the ground at the moment

the tank the babies are in now, again, no idea gallons but it's like 2.5 by 2m

i've been asking the name of the fish but he just keeps saying catfish, it's too dark to take a photo now but they look like this (taken from web)

upload_2015-10-2_19-45-37.png

and when they do the whole play dead thing, they are vertical for up to a minute even then just start swimming again

thanks Flipper! :thanks:
 

Aubrey

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I'm unsure of the kind of catfish, but suspect that they will get quite large :jawdrop1: 3-4 ft! So having 300 of them is :nervous: I hope your husband has a way to do water changes because as these fish grow, they will really foul the water!


Also, in order to find the gallonage of your pond I need the depth too please :)
 

CallmeSweetie

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yes please then i can appear less stupid :) it's 2m one end and 1m the other on a slope :)
 

Jamy

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I'm not completely sure but I think they need mud on the bottom of the pond. I might be wrong but thats what one of my friend told me and they do get very big, the more space they have the bigger they get.
 

CallmeSweetie

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I'm not a fish geek either but it's in my life somehow, I'm trying to get sweetie to say feed the fish :)

Yeah I guessed the meters Flipper let me find photo from the other day, he spent the last 2 days picking out stones so there is a smooth surface for the plastic

That's a good tip thanks Jamy mummy

This is how it looks from a few days ago


image.jpg
 

CallmeSweetie

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My worry is the baby fish he says they are sleeping when they just float horizontally! They do seem ok after:fish3::fish3::fish3:
 

Jamy

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I'm not a fish geek either but it's in my life somehow, I'm trying to get sweetie to say feed the fish :)

Yeah I guessed the meters Flipper let me find photo from the other day, he spent the last 2 days picking out stones so there is a smooth surface for the plastic

That's a good tip thanks Jamy mummy

This is how it looks from a few days ago


View attachment 209609
My pleasure. Hope it all works out well!
 

iamwhoiam

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Best of luck with your catfish. I have small ones, Corydoras.
 

Aubrey

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Wow :jawdrop1: That is some huuuuuge pond!

How will he filter it?
 

Greycloud

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I am guessing the babies are floating because they need oxygen in the water of the tank they are in. A good water change will help. THese appear to be catfish he is raising for meat? The pond is large enough theat he is going to farm raise catfish, yes?
 

CallmeSweetie

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I think it's for fishing so he and his friends can just sit there and fish, on the water changes he said something about using magnesium.
 

ArowanaLover

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Those look like channel catfish or bull catfish, but most catfish look very similar. Floating fish is rarely a good thing. Also fish never really sleep, and certainly do not go vertical to do this.
1. What are you keeping them in now.
2. What are you feeding them
3. What are you filtering the holding tank with
I'm no pond expert, but 300 catfish seems a little bit much for a pond that size. I guess you will have a large amount get eaten, but still, catfish like that are not small fish. Good luck.
 

CallmeSweetie

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We added some plants in the holding tank, it's just a large plastic tank with a filter of material and grain, since we added the plants they seem a lot happier and now they hang around in those, and have stopped the aimless floating, had them 2 weeks now and they haven't been dying touch wood, the plastic for the large pond should arrive later this week too so the big pond will be getting going soon too!
 
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