Raising Backyard Catfish

This is a video of my backyard catfish I took yesterday and they are definitely getting bigger!. For those of you who are following my experiment, I want to say that I have learned that catfish do not like cold weather, and they also LOVE clean water!

After experimenting these last few months I now know that I will only purchase catfish here in south Texas in late February or early March from now on, because, even though they have eaten most of the minnows that I provided as live food for them that they could eat down below when it was too cold to come eat their fish food pellets on the surface, they have been too cold to eat much and have therefore grown very little. But ever since the weather has been warmer they hit the surface to feed on their fish pellets and even snap up unaware minnows more aggressively!

At first I only changed out half of the 200 gallons of water "every other day", but after losing about 40 of my original 75 catfish (I added another 25 that I bought bringing myself to a total of 60) from not understanding how important clean pure water is to them, I began to change out 95% of the water "EVERY DAY". I bring the water level down to a mere 3 or 4 inches in the tank "EVERY DAY", (to you water concious folks...I want you to know that ALL the great fish-poo water is recycled back into my garden) then I swish my net around in the tank as the water level goes way down to grab up any floating debris such as uneaten fish pellets or their fish-poo, and then I run fresh water in while still pumping water out for about 20 minutes to ensure a truly fresh start before I fill the tank back up to the 200 gallon level.

I keep it at only 200 gallons full so that I can create a bigger splash and therefore more OXYGEN (the other thing my catfish dearly love!) from the tube I have coming from my submersible pump (that's what pumps out the water) and then I curve that tube back around into the tank for great aeration.

With the catfish just now starting to eat strongly I should see them grow rapidly to a harvestable 1 1/2 lb weight within 5 to 6 more months. I'll post videos as I notice a good growth change.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• backyard catfish
• catfish in a barrel

[tbredlady]

I had about 20 one-foot-long two-inch in diameter catfish left from the original 50 that overwintered just fine down here in south Texas, though they did not eat much due to the cold weather and therefore did not grow much, but come April when the weather hit the eighties again they ate like pigs and grew FAST! I think your fish will do just fine.

[rumpole33]

are you going to attach it to an aquaponics system later in order to use that catfish water to act as a nutritive to plants?

[tbredlady]

@rumpole33 I don't have plans to attach it to an aquaponic system because I instead attach a "VERY LONG" hose to my pump that areates the water, and then I take that hoae all over throughout my 50 X 50-foot garden and use it to water EVERYTHING, since I usually drain around 150-gallons from the tote every evening.

[tbredlady]

You who said this video is nothing bt water sounds and the catfish... well... what more can i put on the video? I bgt 50 fngerlings and raised them for 10 months in a 250-gallon tote with a 350 gallon sbmersible water pump to oxygenate the water and I drained and replaced 100 gallons of water a day from it which I used to water my garden, and I fed them Purina Catfish Food every morning and every night, and I only fed them they amount they could eat up completely within five minutes.

[tbredlady]

Sorry to always take so long to reply, bt I feel i ave answered all of these questions in my original posting of this video. I will try to get a webpage put together soon but in the meantime I'll answer a few questiosn that i haven't answered yet, and that is that the catfish i raised were "Channel Catfish" and they were simply wonderful! I put LOTS of information on the video so you who think I didn't please go back and read everything, especially the first thing.

[tbredlady]

Sorry to always take so long to reply, bt I feel i ave answered all of these questions in my original posting of this video. I will try to get a webpage put together soon but in the meantime I'll answewr the ONE question that i haven't answered yet, and that is that the catfish i raised were "Channel atfish" and they were simply wonderful! I loved my experience and pe to do it again soon.

[IAmProletariAN]

I took agricultural classes in HS, and we were taught how to raise catfish and tilapia in various enviroments, ponds, cages, and tanks. I should try to find my old notes and send them to you if you are interested. We also used water tanks to raise them in, and the students took advatnage of indoor spaces all over.

[IAmProletariAN]

@tbredlady ok, I hope I can find them, they would be about 10+ years old an in storage someplace, lol. Yes raising the fish should be easy on a small scale and as you get going should be easier. I just found your page so i dont know what you are doing, are you planning on using them for consumption? (our school ended up eating the fishe we raised at the end of the year, lol)

[IAmProletariAN]

@blacknazndymepiece pt3 I also remember we worked very hard to keep the tanks clean, it looked like something you would want to drink out of yourself, these stock tanks were like a translucuent white plastic ... we used large filters and fountains specialized just for this purpose... the conditions also allowed for the fry to grow from 3 inches, to 18 inches in just several months. if you don't have ag bio courses available nearby... try to get information from the farms themselves...

[IAmProletariAN]

@blacknazndymepiece pt 2 the tanks we used the same kind you woudl store water in for livestock that were entirely sealed, we only cut out a small portion at the top... and I vaguely remember one type of bedrock in there that helped maintain beneficial organisms ... you don't want to raise catfish like you would aquarium fish, products from that area were not designed for human consumption as well as can be toxic...

[IAmProletariAN]

@blacknazndymepiece hi chris, I'm so sorry I looked for my old notebooks from highschool and could not find them since I posted here. In the school I went to, we last raise catfish in very large water tanks, all bare, inside of large buildings. (by this time we were no longer raising them in lakes) I'm also struggling to remember everything that we did. We got small fry from a local fisherie, both channel catfish and tilapia, and the fisherie was helpful as well with giving us info...

[blacknazndymepiece]

@IAmProletariAN Hi this is chris and i was wanting to know a little more about raising catfish, and was wondering if i could get you to send me some info.

[eliden]

can u feed it catfood?

[aimuyoaizy]

I would those notes. If you can send them as attachment to my email id. Thanks

[profisherman17]

i have 3 bullhead catfish in my fish tank now ones anout 4 inches the others five and the others 6 inches, they are oing fine and i feed them worms ive grown them sense they were just babies But im hoping they will live threw the cold wether thats comeing in 4 months, how will they do? i also have a 11 inch brown bullhead in my homemade pond thats a good size, im also wondering how he will do it the winter days.

[rumpole33]

@tbredlady - i'm wondering, after watching aquaponic systems on YT, if this system uses the h2o more efficiently, since it goes directly to the plants' roots, which then filter out the nitrogen & etc & creates a re-usable water for the fish so that it can be recycled back to the fish tank. also, it seems plants do better in an aquaponics system.