Its not a wild fish either, that cat started eating minnows when it was a fry
In Aquaria
Channel catfish are commonly available in the aquarium trade as 3 to 4 inch youngsters. They will readilly consume many other fish species and grow large in tanks, often resulting in either their illegal release or even being eaten by their owners after they reach a large size. They make good scavengers in large tanks with fish such as Plecostomus, Oscars, cichlids, silver dollars, large Goldfish, and other large varieties.
Channel catfish are
omnivoreOmnivore
Omnivores are species that eating both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material exclusively....
s who can be caught on a variety of natural and prepared baits including
cricketsCricket (insect)
Crickets, family
Gryllidae , are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers and more closely related to Tettigoniidae . They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antenna ....
,
nightcrawlerLumbricus terrestris
Lumbricus terrestris is a large reddish worm native to Europe, but now also widely distributed elsewhere around the world , due to human introductions....
s,
minnowMinnow
Minnow may refer to:...
s,
shadShad
The
shads or
river herrings comprise the genus
Alosa, fish related to herring in the family Clupeidae. They are distinct from others in that family by having a deeper body and spawning in rivers....
, crawfish,
frogFrog
Frogs are amphibians in the order
Anura , formerly referred to as
Salientia . The name frog derives from Old English language
frogga, , cognate with Sanskrit
plava , probably deriving from Proto-Indo-European language
praw = "to jump"....
s,
bullheadBullhead
Bullhead may mean:* Kinds of fish, including:** Certain sculpins, including:*** European bullhead, Cottus gobio*** Siberian bullhead, Cottus poecilopus...
s,
sunfishCentrarchidae
The
sunfishes are a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is
Centrarchus . The family's 27 species includes many fishes familiar to North Americans, including the rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, and crappies....
, and
suckerCatostomidae
Catostomidae is the
sucker family of the order Cypriniformes. There are 80 species in this family of freshwater fish. Catostomidae are found in North America, east central China, and eastern Siberia....
s.
the above list is what they naturally eat from their natural habitat, you can feed it pellets but then it will be nothing more then a farm raised catfish as far as its energy levels go and its behavior.
Lets put it this way, if you are going to keep it as a pet, you need atleast a 150 gallon tank. Catfish need the room for arobic swimming and exercising, they are by no means a aquarium catfish as far as species go.
I guess I should give up on being a catfish hunter, 15 years of success seems to not mean much here when it comes to knowing about a certain game species.
I do hope the ones who are giving info have actually studied these fish and kept them as large aquaria pets. Everything that is being stated goes against everything that has been found thru decades of research on this particular species.
FYI nearly every catfish in a non flowing lake are farm raised stock fish, not wild, they do not exuberate the same characteristics of wild catfish.
