Cover

[Daniel E Murphy]

One thing I observed about catfish is they really want to be under cover.  I am thinking abaout layering some liner underwater to provide vertical bottoms for the catfish... What do you think?  Since they love the bottom why not provide them some shelving to give them more places to rest on the "bottom".  I have seen catfish go to great lengths to rest under something.  Using liner to separate layers of water will not displace too much water and should not degrade.  Just make sure to give enough room to catch them for harvest time ;)

[TCLynx]

Back in the beginning, I had hides for the catfish in the tank and they did crowd into them.

They also tended to scrape themselves on whatever they were trying to crowd into.

However, over time I discovered that any objects in a heavily stocked system also tended to catch solids and fish poo which I would rather have move on through the system.

For the past year and a half, I've kept the catfish in the larger tanks without any sort of "hides" and there does not seem to be any detrimental effect on the fish.

I do keep a cover over the tank so they are in well shaded water and so not fearful of creatures grabbing them from above till I open the cover and go after them with a net.

The only time I'm likely to add hides now is if I have really small catfish fry/fingerlings in an aquarium that is exposed or if I were to set up a large pond and try to get breeding going, in which case you need containers large enough for 5-15 lb catfish to breed. Otherwise, in a heavily stocked food system, hides are just more places for solids to collect and cause problems or obstacles that will make catching fish difficult and I wouldn't bother.

[Daniel E Murphy]

I was thinking of bisecting the pool in 2 creating 2 bottoms and of course a cover on top. I was hoping to extend the available space for these bottom loving animals in addition to trying to make them feel more comfy. i wasn't thinking of holes as such but 2 bottoms with a clear way to get to top and bottom half. If its too crowded for any floor space below i can always rest on the bottom in the top half. Of course this may, as you eluded, present some challenges for proper filtration but I suppose if each half had its own intake it would be ok.

[Daniel E Murphy]

Vertical Catfish ;)

[TCLynx]

Interesting concept and if you have the time/materials you can always experiment, however, I expect you may find it more trouble than it is worth.

I do know that growers of creatures like red claw, yabbies, crawfish, shrip and other creatures that need lots of space because of territorial reason have done the mesh shelving sort of set up in tanks to allow more space per creature in less footprint of tank.

However, with catfish, they also need a good amount of water and flow since they can become rather large fish and their metabolism will take more of a toll on the water quality if you actually manage to pack the water column full of fish. Also keep in mind that liner false bottoms will impede circulation and aeration of the water. At least in the yabbie systems the shelves are mesh or netting that allows for circulation.

[Daniel E Murphy]

Thanks TCLynx!

TCLynx said:

Interesting concept and if you have the time/materials you can always experiment, however, I expect you may find it more trouble than it is worth.

I do know that growers of creatures like red claw, yabbies, crawfish, shrip and other creatures that need lots of space because of territorial reason have done the mesh shelving sort of set up in tanks to allow more space per creature in less footprint of tank.

However, with catfish, they also need a good amount of water and flow since they can become rather large fish and their metabolism will take more of a toll on the water quality if you actually manage to pack the water column full of fish. Also keep in mind that liner false bottoms will impede circulation and aeration of the water. At least in the yabbie systems the shelves are mesh or netting that allows for circulation.