Catfish and cold weather!!

[Dan Ponton]

After the weather turned turned cold, my catfish stopped eating. I am not sure how they are surviving, since they do not appear to be eating at all. When I feel them I do not hear any feeding noise. For those with experience, I have a few questions.

1. How often should I feed them?

2. How much should I feed them?

3. What effect does this have on the plant growth? No food to fish means no waste products, meaning lower nitrogen cycle.

4. Should I add supplements for plants?

[Bob Campbell]

The water temp is about 54F in my outdoor system and about 74F in the indoor system.  My Channel Cat are only 3" and I've never seen them go to the surface for food in either system.  The indoor fish will eat food off the bottom and I assume the outdoor fish are doing the same since they are still alive, but I hardly ever see them because they hide in the spout hole of the IBC.  My indoor fish are in an aquarium.  They swim the same path or hide in a tube, each has it's own neurotic personality. ; 

As long as the ammonia does not build up I will continue the feed both tanks. I'm not feeding the cold tank as much though. The bacteria has probably gone dormant or died by now in the cold system, but the plants don't seem to mind even though the ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels are all zero.

I too would like to hear what others do during the Winter, but as long as the water quality is good then I'd say continue to feed them but at a lesser rate.  I have supplemented ammonia in the summer, but I'd be careful with that because the bacteria are not active when it's cold.

[Jim Fisk]

My 18 cats have gotten so boring in the cold I added 2 IBCs of trout which love these temps. Great show with about 27 in each. I maintain about 55F with my wood hw heater. Lows have been down to 20F so far. The cats get a small amount of feed 2 td while the trout get a good dose of food 3 times and always put on a great feeding frenzy show every time.

[TCLynx]

When the water gets below about 55 F I wouldn't feed much at all.  This will mean less nutrients for plants but when the water is really cold the bacteria won't be up to converting as much waste and the plants won't be using as much nutrients.  Systems with really cold water are likely to be a bit slow on the nutrients but I wouldn't go adding hydro nutrients with channel catfish in the system since they are not really salt tolerant.

[Bob Campbell]

I agree the channel cats in my cool tank are all crowded away in a hole, ,but in the warm tank they act autistic.   As they grow larger I've noticed that they have begun to break away from the same repetitive movements, but they are still the most ridiculous fish I've ever seen.   

Jim Fisk said:

My 18 cats have gotten so boring in the cold I added 2 IBCs of trout which love these temps. Great show with about 27 in each. I maintain about 55F with my wood hw heater. Lows have been down to 20F so far. The cats get a small amount of feed 2 td while the trout get a good dose of food 3 times and always put on a great feeding frenzy show every time.

[TCLynx]

I've had catfish that I've nicknamed wall hangers since they will place themselves belly to the tank wall head up and tail down and maintain that position for hours.  I've had big fish that I could tell apart mainly based on the behavior and position they tended to hold in the tank, I guess that is what happens when you only have a few really big fish in a fairly large tank, they choose their territories and stick with them.

[Dan Ponton]

I am thinking of adding additional fish, is this a good time of year? I am planing on harvesting some this spring. They will be 1 year old in April and I begin eating them

I have about 50 cats in a 1,000 gal pool (about 1 lbs or so). I am thinking of adding 50 more and keeping them in a tote until they get bigger.

I assume they will eat the small one.

TCLynx said:

I've had catfish that I've nicknamed wall hangers since they will place themselves belly to the tank wall head up and tail down and maintain that position for hours.  I've had big fish that I could tell apart mainly based on the behavior and position they tended to hold in the tank, I guess that is what happens when you only have a few really big fish in a fairly large tank, they choose their territories and stick with them.

[Dan Ponton]

Hi TC, I saw an old post of yours where you maintained fish food getting old. I am currently using Tractor supply catfish food. They were eating very well until lately. Lately the water temp has been 65-70 degrees and they still are not eating at much at all.

I had been keeping the food in the garage until about 1 moth ago. I am wondering if keeping it outside under a tarp in the hoop house is not a good way to store it.

TCLynx said:

I've had catfish that I've nicknamed wall hangers since they will place themselves belly to the tank wall head up and tail down and maintain that position for hours.  I've had big fish that I could tell apart mainly based on the behavior and position they tended to hold in the tank, I guess that is what happens when you only have a few really big fish in a fairly large tank, they choose their territories and stick with them.

[TCLynx]

Check the water quality first.  If fish stop eating and it isn't because of temperature, always check the water quality, flow/circulation and aeration.  If the water quality and all parts of the system are running well and you can't find anything else stressing the fish out then consider the fish feed.  Fish feed is getting old at 4 months and after 6 months from when it was made (should be a stamp with a date on the bag somewhere) I would worry that it could be getting too old, especially if it has been stored out in the moisture and heat.  I keep my feed in air tight bins in the barn or garage but I usually have to buy new feed every couple months.  If your bag of feed is big enough that it has lasted longer than 4 months, I would probably recommend sealing up smaller bags of it and keeping some of it in the freezer or something until ready to use it.

If thinking about getting more fish, make sure the filtration you have will be sufficient to support adding more fish to the system.  Remember new small fish usually eat higher protein feed and thus need more filtration per amount of food given because of that.  The amount of water in the current fish tank doesn't really tell me if you have enough filtration for even the amount of fish you have let alone enough to handle getting more fish.  And I've found that quarantining new fish in a system that isn't up to the task of filtering for them can often cause more problems for those fish.  Especially catfish since they have sensitive skin and ammonia spikes along with excess handling can lead to much stress and infections.  So, what sort of grow beds/filtration do you have for that 1000 gallon pool?  If you have 200 cubic feet of gravel beds filtering for your system then I would say go for it and get the other 50 catfish and either keep them in a separate tank or make a cage to put in the big tank to protect them from the big guys.  If you only have 100 cubic feet of gravel beds, then you may be pushing it if you add 50 more catfish since your big ones will probably be approaching 2-3 lb by the time you harvest and having extra little guys growing up in that could be pushing your filtration if you are not very skilled at keeping fish.

[Dan Ponton]

The water quality is good, near zero ammonia, no nitrates, PH is between 7-7.5 ( had a lot of rain yesterday) otherwise is around 8. My phosphate is around 9-10, but I am not sure what is should be.

I have good flow and normally the water is very clear. I have only had 1 catfish die since April and that was when I was on vacation for a week.

I have a new unopened 40 lb bag of food dated Sept 18. I will do as you suggest and freeze half of it.

I have 634 gals of gravel beds and 328 gals of DWC. I also have a 30 gal barrel swirl filter and a 25 gal biofilter at the pump.

I never heard of using CF as a measure for filtering. Using that I have 129 cf of filter and 127 cf of pond and about 7 gallons per fish.

I gave the fish red worms from Walmart the other day and they really liked them, so maybe it is the food.

TCLynx said:

Check the water quality first.  If fish stop eating and it isn't because of temperature, always check the water quality, flow/circulation and aeration.  If the water quality and all parts of the system are running well and you can't find anything else stressing the fish out then consider the fish feed.  Fish feed is getting old at 4 months and after 6 months from when it was made (should be a stamp with a date on the bag somewhere) I would worry that it could be getting too old, especially if it has been stored out in the moisture and heat.  I keep my feed in air tight bins in the barn or garage but I usually have to buy new feed every couple months.  If your bag of feed is big enough that it has lasted longer than 4 months, I would probably recommend sealing up smaller bags of it and keeping some of it in the freezer or something until ready to use it.

If thinking about getting more fish, make sure the filtration you have will be sufficient to support adding more fish to the system.  Remember new small fish usually eat higher protein feed and thus need more filtration per amount of food given because of that.  The amount of water in the current fish tank doesn't really tell me if you have enough filtration for even the amount of fish you have let alone enough to handle getting more fish.  And I've found that quarantining new fish in a system that isn't up to the task of filtering for them can often cause more problems for those fish.  Especially catfish since they have sensitive skin and ammonia spikes along with excess handling can lead to much stress and infections.  So, what sort of grow beds/filtration do you have for that 1000 gallon pool?  If you have 200 cubic feet of gravel beds filtering for your system then I would say go for it and get the other 50 catfish and either keep them in a separate tank or make a cage to put in the big tank to protect them from the big guys.  If you only have 100 cubic feet of gravel beds, then you may be pushing it if you add 50 more catfish since your big ones will probably be approaching 2-3 lb by the time you harvest and having extra little guys growing up in that could be pushing your filtration if you are not very skilled at keeping fish.

[TCLynx]

using Cubic foot of gravel bed gives a good amount of filtration for a new system to handle a fish that is planned to grow out to 1 lb each.  That is a conservative measure but for backyard systems conservative is normally best.  For low density raft systems I believe you go by up to 1lb of fish per 3 square feet of raft bed.

Your swirl filter won't do much for you unless you are actually removing solids from the system and at that point you are essentially removing nutrients from your plants.  The bio-filter will give you more leeway as you get more fish.

Anyway, sounds like you system could easily support another 50 small channel catfish.

As to the feed.  I've not been terribly impressed by the fish feeds I've tried from tractor supply.  The only ones my local TS carried were for farm pond fish that are essentially eating a natural diet and the fish feed is just a supplement and therefore not a complete feed.  It might be worth your while to look into possibly getting a complete fish feed meant for fish in recirculating aquaculture systems.  Aquamax 4000 is what I've used but there are others available out there.  Sylvia carries an organic fish feed even.  The Aquamax is a Purina Mills Product so you can go to their web site and get a list of feed stores in your area that are purina dealers, then you can call them up and see who is willing to get a bag of Aquamax 4000 put on the next truck delivery for you (and find out what they will charge for it.)  Though Tractor Supply is technically a Purina Dealer now, they won't since they work through centralized warehousing so they will only get the purina products that all their stores carry.

You DO NOT WANT fish feed that has been sitting on a shelf in the store or warehouse for months before you get it.