ANYONE RAISING CATFISH?

[Carroll Harris]

I'm gathering information before building a Friendly Micro system, and I thought I'd decided on some kind of tilapia for my aquaponics' 'engine'  -- but then I read somewhere that catfish will survive in water that is iced over (not necessarily love it, but at least survive!).  I'm in Boulder, CO, and will be getting a 275 IBC tank for my fish -- and it has to go outside, since I don't have the capacity for a greenhouse! 

I am planning on using strawbale technology to insulate (as well as the fishhouse ideas from the Friendlies' website, and hoop tunnels to protect my troughs as much as possible) -- but do any of y'all have experience with cats in freezing water?  (Now THAT sounds like a bad idea, if you're talking about the furry kind!)  I've been exploring on the web, and one site said that "if the water freezes, then the outside temperature is 39 degrees" (sorry, don't remember where that's from) -- but here it gets a lot colder than that. . . . .  Thanks!   carroll

[Sahib Punjabi]

Hello Carroll,

 

Suggest you look in Groups...and join the Catfish Growers group...TCLynx and other members have posted a wealth of information so just a humble suggestion, it would be a good idea to keep all info there :-)

 

God bless 

[Carroll Harris]

Thanks, Sahib -- I somehow skipped right over that group!  Thank you so much!  carroll

[TCLynx]

If you can keep the water from freezing, you can keep an aquaponics system sort of ticking over at a low ebb through winter but I fear keeping things from actually freezing over in your location will actually require some heating in your hoop house/fish tank house.

I wonder if that temperature for freezing has anything to do with altitude?

 

Here (near sea level) I've experienced water below 32 F that was not frozen and there were catfish surviving in it but I tell you it was painful to catch them (with a small aquarium net) and move them into my greenhouse at the time.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Carroll, check with Lilley Fisheries in Boulder.  They are mostly a trout farm, but last spring they had cats.

[Carroll Harris]

Thanks, Sylvia -- I definitely need to talk to someone who's in Boulder to see how they do here!  I also posted under Catfish grower group, once I found it with Sahib's help!

 

:)

carroll

Sylvia Bernstein said:

Carroll, check with Lilley Fisheries in Boulder.  They are mostly a trout farm, but last spring they had cats.