Hello for a Newbie

AshVX220 · Post by **AshVX220** » 02 Apr 2007, 11:29

Hello everyone,
as you can see I'm a Newbie

and a have a couple of questions regarding my Catfish, I've been a member of another forum for a while, but that's car based and the guys there won't be alot of help with my Catfish questions!!

Some background info, my wife and I have built a small pond in our garden, we live in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.
At the weekend we bought some fish and some plants for our pond, and one of the fish (as you can tell) is a Catfish, the shop said it was a Channel Catfish.
It's about 3-4" long and very dark grey.

He spends alot of time hiding in the pond and swims around at night (which I think is normal).
My questions are,
1. When I've read some stuff about Channel Catfish, it says a temp of 10-24C, now, is that water temp or body temp? The water temp of our pond is probably only about 2-3C in the UK at the moment, the in the afternoon it is a bit warmer. I'm just concerned he won't be happy there, if that's the case I'll give him to my brother who has an internal aquarium.

2. Are Catfish Solitary as well as noctunral, or should my wife and I buy him a friend?

Thanks for any info or help may give, sorry if these appear to be dumb questions, like I said, I a total fish newbie.

Ash

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 02 Apr 2007, 11:45

There's some information on the Cat-eLog page:

They are not "social", but from what I understand, they are also not "anitsocial" - by this, I mean they are fine to keep on their own, and don't need "friends".

Beware that they are piscivores, they will eat any fish that fits in it's mouth, and grow quite quickly - so you can't keep small goldfish in your pond.

Beware also that this fish is "restricted" in the UK: PFK article.

I believe the ideal temperature in the Cat-eLog is correct, but I'm also sure that the winters in Massachussets is harsher than the average winter in England, so I think as long as the pond is not frozen to the bottom, you should be ok.

It is worth noting that for almost all fish, their body temperature is the same as the temperature of the water surrounding them - they are "cold blooded" creatures, they don't generate (any noticable) warmth from their own body. [Exceptions that I know of are some fishes in the Tuna family, which can have a body temperature of around 2'C warmer than the water they are in - this makes them a better predator, since they can produce more energy to swim at a higher temperature, which means they are faster swimmers than their prey under otherwise same conditions].

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Mats

AshVX220 · Post by **AshVX220** » 02 Apr 2007, 16:03

Thankyou for your reply mats.

I'll try and get a picture of it in the "ID my Cat" thread. Mine is much darker in colour than any of those on the link you posted up.

Very concerned about just how much these guys grow, to be honest (probably a beginners mistake and misunderstanding), I thought most fresh water fish grew to a sufficient size for their surroundings. I didn't think he'd grow much bigger than 9" max. I feel a bit stupid to be honest.

My Brother has a Catfish in his fishtank and he's been 9"'s long for about 5 years now. (Dark Colour with white spots and speckles).

Also worried about him (or her) being restricted in the UK, I got him from a large water/pond specialist. I hope I can keep him for a while, but I certainly wouldn't want him to be unhappy or stressed.

Like I said, I'll try to get a picture up this weekend, also, I didn't think the whole tempareture question through did I!! Cold Blooded, Der!!!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 02 Apr 2007, 16:12

Well, there are of course many different species catfish (last time I "counted" there was 1801 different species (including undescribed ones) in the Cat-eLog), and not all grow to the same size (and no, fish generally don't grow to match the size of their surroundings unless you at the same time "mismanage them" in some way [sorry, sore subject on my behalf].

If it's a large pond specialist that sold you the fish, you'd think that they have a correct ID, but there's of course always the possibility that they aren't right... Unfortunately, most other north american species of catfish grow fairly large too, and pretty much all of them are restricted for import to the UK.

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Mats