Small catfish from my river.

[SpreadSeeds808]

I wanted to try to keep a small (4-6 inch) catfish (channel or bullhead) in my tank. I've never kept a catfish, but I do have an empty tank sitting in my basement. What do I need? (heater,filter, etc.)
thank you.

 

[LyndaB]

The channel catfish can easily reach over 4 1/2 feet long. It would easily require more than a 125 gallon tank.

The bullhead cat would average 12 - 18 inches so you're probably talking 80-100 gallons?

 

[Daxhua]

Treat it like you would any fish. A while back I caught a catfish fry tiny little thing less than an inch and put him in my community tank. It grew quickly in a very short amount of time it got to about 7inches when I decided to release it back from where I caught him. I was worried about it going after my neons and other tetras but never did.

 

[HUKIT]

I would first check with your local DNR, since removing a fish under the legal length limit could get expensive in fines.

 

[emerald76]

Lots of filtration
Lots
Lots
Lots

 

[sliderfish]

A 4-6" channel cat will not be a 4-6" channel cat for long. 48" is a stretch for channels however they will grow to about 12" in the first year or so and steady after until they are only suitable for the largest of aquarium show tanks like what you'd see at bass pro or the local aquarium.

I kept a bullhead that I caught as a fry for about a year. I was only about 15 then and didn't know much about fish keeping other than it was cool and kept it alive around a year. It grew to about 2 pounds by the time it died and was waaaay too big for the tank I had it in. He ate about 6-10 small goldfish a night. Was pretty boring during the day, but as soon as the light went off you could hear splashing. Turn the light back on and all the goldfish were gone lol. Although it was neat, I wouldn't recommend doing it without a huge tank and massive filtration system. Also I was told later by a conservation agent that it was most likely illegal...