Wild catfish questions

[FishFreak95, posts: 12]

I want to breed catfish by catching catfish out of the rio grande and striping them of there eggs and sperm.
Could this work?
What time of the year do they get eggs?
How do you sex the catfish?
How do you take out the eggs and sperm?
How would you fertilize them?
Could you just have a strong current that will aerate the eggs but not strong enough to blow them away instead of a catfish fanning them?
How do u feed the fry?
any other info?
Because I like to go catfishing a lot and why not breed what im gonna eat. b

[MatsP]

I'm sure these fish can be bred in captivity, but I'm pretty sure that for food, it's most likely a lot easier to just catch the wild ones. It will take quite some time (and thus effort) to get them to edible size.

--
Mats

[FishFreak95, posts: 12]

No, I dont want to produce food. I fish in the rio grande and catch catfish, I eat the catfish before i fillet that cat I want to take out the eggs and sperm. I just want to raise them to about 6 inches than let them go. for fun

[MatsP]

No, I dont want to produce food. I fish in the rio grande and catch catfish, I eat the catfish before i fillet that cat I want to take out the eggs and sperm. I just want to raise them to about 6 inches than let them go. for fun

Unless you have specific permission, I'm pretty sure releasing captive bred species would be both illegal and potentially harmful to the environment. If your locally bred fish ever gets in contact with a disease or parasite that isn't in their natural habitat, you may cause a disaster ...

The rules when catching fish in nature is to either release it immediately (within about two hours and assuming no contact with different water or fish from another body of water) or kill it.

--
Mats

[Shane]

Fishfreak,
I understand your good intentions, but Mats is correct. You could very easily find yourself in trouble with State authorities or Fish and Game. Luckily, there are no shortage of catfishes in the Rio Grande. Enjoy maintaining them in aquariums and enjoy fishing for them in the river, but leave their population management to the proper agencies.
-Shane

[apistomaster, posts: 4569]

Since you do spend time fishing for larger catfish for sport why not take some time while you are on the river and try to collect one of the Dwarf Native NA Catfish, Madtoms?
It's up to you to comply with the applicable regulations regarding collecting native fish.
Madtom Cats are very cool aquarium fish and they are challenging but not impossible to breed them in captivity, a more satisfactory challenge than just trying to artificially reproduce the large food species.

[FishFreak95, posts: 12]

ok. I wont do that. I dont really know what a Madtom is but I have found yellow bullhead catfish fry and i am keeping it in an aquarium. Watching them breed would be more interesting than doing it artificialy. Would yellow bullhead catfish be OK for keeping and breeding? I might be getting a 110 gallon from might uncle soon.

[FishFreak95, posts: 12]

Is there any madtoms native to Rio Grande?

[apistomaster, posts: 4569]

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publication ... 0_0236.pdf

[Proteus, posts: 396]

i agree about permits.

Madtoms are one of the entertaining catfish I have kept personally. if it wasn't other fish or animal that have killed mine in the tanks I have had i would have a handful today...

I just haven't been able to catch them again in my river for few years now....