Wild catfish

[feeder_guppy]

okay, okay. I was catching some bugs in a pond in some park. and i got this little catfish about 1 1/2 - 2 inches big. obviosly, i wanted it. Well, now i have it at home. Does anyone have any advice on keeping one? or how and what to feed it? i am not sure what kind it is or anything. but i read something about pellets for food....

 

[toddnbecka]

Is the tail forked or round? In any case, it will eat pretty much anything, including other fish if they're small enough.

 

[feeder_guppy]

the end is like- [ , flat

 

[toddnbecka]

Most likely a species of bullhead catfish, channel cats have forked tails. They will do fine in an aquarium with good filtration, will grow quickly too.

 

[Pleco]

and quite tasty when fried, depending on who you ask

 

[feeder_guppy]

I heard they grow only to the size of their enviroment. is this true?

 

[Speakerman]

I heard they grow only to the size of their enviroment. is this true?

If by environment, you mean including the amount of food being fed...Then yes of course that is true. With everything...

Although, most fish will not grow to "fit" the size of the space they live in...They just grow depending on how active they are and how much food is consumed on a regular basis...There are other factors of course.

Common sense says if you starve something, its not going to grow...Or if it does use it's scarce energy to grow, it will likely die.

This goes with pretty much any living creature...

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Some pictures would be nice so that we could get a real ID.

If it is a bullhead, it will eat anything that fits into it's mouth (which basically means anything up to ~2/3 of it's size or more). I believe they can be housed in a 55 gallon tank with good filtration. If you are lucky you may have come across a matidom, which stay much smaller.

As far as growing to the size of the tank, that is completely bunk. If such a thing occurs, it is stunted growth caused by poor feeding, poor water quality, stress due to lack of swimming room, or a host of other factors.

 

[feeder_guppy]

alright, thanks. I can't take any pictures and put them up soon enough. I do not have a digital camera or anything like that. so it would take a while..

 

[WaterPond]

When i had a catfish i fed it floating koi pellets. Seemed to really like them, and they are very nutritious, also feed it frozen bloodworms and feeder guppies.

 

[fish_4_all]

Only question is how big is the tank. They do get up to 6 pounds around here and 18 inches long so I guess a 55 could house them. Messy little pigs if you ask me. And they will eat anything! Shrimp, worms, any fish they can swallow, any crustacean, catfood, dogfood, chunks of beef and most anything else.

I would really like to see how it fairs in your tank. I know they can adjust to higher temps and are more active at 70 F. so it wqil be interesting to here your success. I would suggest a large, wide tank so it can grow and not be stressed out. They also like vegetable matter BTW.

 

[fishfairy]

Most wild catfish get much longer than 18 inches, however, it takes a good long while for them to get anywhere near that large. I personally wouldn't keep one in captivity without having a very large pond, however, you may be ok for a while especially if you have one of the smaller varieties.

 

[feeder_guppy]

if it starts to get big, i will most likely need to get rid of it. it only has a small tank at the moment.

 

[hc8719]

I heard they grow only to the size of their enviroment. is this true?

no fish will only grow to the size of the enviroment, they will grow less than they would naturally, but grow more than they should in their current tank.

you really think that if you kept a child in a cage, they would stay a tiny to fit the size of the cage? sure they wouldnt grow to full potentional, but they would outgrow