ictalurus punctatus

lvlyldyuk3605 · Post by **lvlyldyuk3605** » 01 Jul 2005, 20:27

why do people say these catfish wont breed in a home aquarium?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Jul 2005, 11:16

If you have a big enough tank, I don't see why it wouldn't.

Now, big enough tank is probably something beyond your normal Hampshire house's are capable of, but if you have a garage that you can convert into a tank, or something like that, then I see no reason why you can't make a go at it. Considering the fish's maximum size, you're looking at something like 5500 liters just to keep the parents. [that's based on a max len of 700mm -> 2.8 x 1.4 x 1.4 m].

The Cat-elog page of says:

Commercially farmed in large ponds and so breeding is easily accomplished on the correct scale. This scale however does not encompass the home aquarium.

I have no clue as to what other breeding criteria (such as some fish are group breeders, and if you haven't got a dozen fish all exciting each other, they won't breed or they want a particular pattern of light-time change to start breeding, for example) which could make it even harder than the "size" problem.

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Mats

lvlyldyuk3605 · Post by **lvlyldyuk3605** » 04 Jul 2005, 11:33

ok, well i shall tell you bout my albino catfish.
yes i know i shall prop get moaned at but hey.
i have 12 albino catfish and they are in no way shape or form in a tank the size you suggest, yet i have had eggs stuck to the glass. (bout 50)
i managed to save 9 before they all got eaten.
and today will be their 3rd day, they still look ok. they are in a seperate little tank with methayne blue.

lvlyldyuk3605 · Post by **lvlyldyuk3605** » 04 Jul 2005, 11:35

i got albino catfish because they were not supposed to breed.
have enough trouble keeping up with the platy's,lol.
they are in a tank to themselves.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Jul 2005, 12:16

I'm not moaning as such, but I feel that you started at the wrong end of the stick with your question. I thouhgt you wanted to know why people in general advise that these are not fish to be trying to breed in a home aquarium, which is something I would agree with. That is not the same question as "Why does my fish breed in my home aquarium?".

There's certainly nothing I've seen anywhere that says "These fish are impossible to breed in aquarium". But they wouldn't be anywhere on my list of recommended aquarium breeders. In fact the Cat-eLog entry says "Breeding is easily accomplished ...", so I guess it's not really difficult to breed them per se.

Fish will breed under certain circumstance, and there's lots of different parameters for different fish that needs to be right enough. Some fish will thrive even in pretty poor water quality, and I think the Channel catfish is one of them. Others will not even survive in the same conditions, never mind thinking about breeding.

There's nothing saying that you can't keep fish in too small a tank. That's not an uncommon thing, but it doesn't make it "right". There's a general guideline of 4L x 2L x 2L, where L is the length of the fish, and that when you use the maximum size of the Channel Catfish, you get a 5,500 liter tank.

There are however several concerns with keeping fish in too small a tank:
1. The fish will grow slower than, and/or stop growing early, compared to ideal conditions, particularly if the water is not of good quality.
2. The water quality will be very "fragile" when having large fish in a small tank, and more likely to cause bad water quickly.
3. It's cruel to the fish to keep it in a tank that is too small.

If you're "worried about them breeding" in the sense that you don't want the young, I suppose you could always not salvage the eggs, since if the adults are in the tank, they will probably eat the eggs.

Just trying to help...
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Mats