Stupid catfish... You cant eat that many goldfish... Can you?

[fishlover9000]

how many goldfish should i freed my 1ft channel catfish a day.


Quote:
Originally Posted by mattman0182
I did but he rarely ate in front of me. I would put 4 goldies in there and they would slowly disapear.

Several members on here have advised against live food though. If the feeder is sick....the predater will also get sick. Thats one drawback.



Thats why i always specifcly pick my feeders after close examination.... a lot of the time i will get yelled at by the people getting me the fish. alot of the time they just hand me the net LOL!

 

[gzeiger]

Goldfish are specifically not recommended because they contain an enzyme (thiaminase) that breaks down vitamin B and in the long run will cause your catfish to develop a serious nutritional deficiency.

Live foods are great, but I wouldn't trust your eye to spot disease in a store's feeder tank. There are lots of diseases and parasites that spread readily in the feeder tank environment that will not immediately show symptoms. That's up to you though. Personally I wouldn't feed my fish flake from the pet store without a suitable quarantine.

You may also like the catfish's response to beef or chicken liver from the supermarket.

 

[fishlover9000]

meet me in the CHAT ROOM.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Fish, you need to get him fish for a bait shop, They're alot cleaner fish and alot healthier then feeder goldfish.

Tried feeding him a declawed crawdad yet?

Oh man just you wait till that time comes, its an awesome sight.

If you go to your local outdoor store, get a minnow seine net, go to a creek or river and get it food there, its free minus the cost of the net( homemade is under 10 bucks total) and the fish are ALOT healthier due to the vast amount of water and alot ALOT less crowding and interbreeding like you get with feeders.

 

[fishlover9000]

ok! i have creek down the road, trust me, there is alot of minnows in there!

 

[WhiteDevil]

believe it or not, that creek water is cleaner then yours in the tank, weird aint it lol.

 

[fishlover9000]

wow... i am going to head down there now... be back in 15mins.

 

[WhiteDevil]

QT them first just to be safe, or aclimate them with your water in a seperate bucket for about an hour. after that they will be consumed.


Actaully if you got a 10g laying around, set one up for that, I got 3 10g in my shed for my baitfish and leeches, best move I ever made.

 

[gzeiger]

Please make sure you're familiar with endangered species in your area. You can also get iin trouble with the game warden if you're accidentally taking juvenile game fish. Dipnetting feeder fish is the best way to go, but you really need to be informed about laws and fish identity. If you PM me the location I can help with both. Dipnets are much easier to use than seines if you're working by yourself.

I don't agree that bait shop fish are cleaner than pet store ones though. In my experience they are worse. It may be that you happen to live by a very good bait store, but when I've bought them for tanks just to study they die of horrible diseases at a very high rate (>80%). Wild caught fish I don't generally consider to require quarantine.

Crawfish are definitely the most exciting thing to watch as food though.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Baits stores are all run differently, my bait stores are owned by guys like me who care about quality, its the individual owners of bait shops that dont care for their tank where they get the bad spread of disease and deformaties.

Dips are alot easier w/ 1 person, mines homemade so its easy for 1 person to operate it, articulating joints help that alot.


Here are some pics. Ill post more later in a new thread.

This would be its new tank mates if you decide to donate it.

 

[gzeiger]

Typically it's not tank maintenance that I see as the problem, but collection methods. Seining and some types of traps, especially when they catch large numbers of fish at once, tend to remove scales which leaves the fish very vulnerable to opportunistic infections. That's not to say that many also do not take care of their tanks in addition to that, of course.

Thanks for running a clean bait shop.

 

[WhiteDevil]

We try, infact our bait tanks are 150gallons each, there are 4 of them well more cylinders then tanks but biological cylinder. The water is as clean and stable as our aquarium waters.

The cleaner the fish, the longer they survive on the hook.

 

[mgamer20o0]

why not breed your own feeders?

 

[fishlover9000]

are you talking to me or white?

 

[mgamer20o0]

just a general statement to whom ever. i wont let anything into my system until its passed though qt. guppies mollies platy swords all breed super fast might as well keep a tank of them for feeders.

 

[WhiteDevil]

I do have my own feeder tanks, 3 10g's in the shed. not set up this year yet.

 

[gzeiger]

It just takes a lot of tank space to fully rely on that. I'm also raising my own, but when you're talking about devoting multiple 30 or 50 gallon tanks to raising food for a single fish, sometimes you need a supplement. The original poster wouldn't be set up to start feeding from a tank-raised population for months at best even if he devoted unlimited resources to it.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Question is, does he want his oscars eating the craws too.

The oscars will benifit from it im sure but ive never had oscars.

 

[gzeiger]

I've never had oscars either. Any fish I've kept that can fit a crawdad in its mouth absolutely loves them though.

 

[fishlover9000]

You have got to try having a Oscar... they have emotions and will starve to death if you put them into a new home.. they get attached to you!

want me to make a video?