Madtoms

[ChilDawg]

Anyone keep madtoms? I am interested in learning about your setup, because I might keep a native tank at school next year and maddies would be great. I have an idea as to what might work, tank-wise, but I am interested in learning about working tank set-ups, not just theoretical ones. Thanks in advance!

[OrionGirl]

I couldn't find anything in Fish Base on madtoms...But for great information on keeping native species, check this out: http://www.nanfa.org/

Great organization with great information.

[ChilDawg]

Am I thanking the right person this time if I thank OG for reminding me of the NANFA Website? Should I give Faramir a makeup good call? Thanks, OG!

[OrionGirl]

;) I'll take credit this time!

[VoodooChild]

Madtoms are great fun. I haven't personally kept them, but we have them at the lab. They're alot like the silvertip sharks (Arius seemanni) and behave as such. They eat alot too, just like your standard cat. Remember though, they have venomous pectorals, and I've seen people get stung. It's not pretty.

[ChilDawg]

Voodoo, I am glad that you reiterated that for me and for any others who may be reading and interested in keeping these bizarre, yet cool little critters. I will be sure to be careful when dealing with mine (whenever I get around to collecting them).

You have them at "the lab"? Any possible way that, sometime in the future, I might be able to score one or two from you?

P.S. Go Gophers is right!!!

[Stephen]

The most important thing first Va Tech Virtual Aquarium (Catfish and Madtom Info) (http://www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/families/ictaluridae.html). Great info. My nephew keeps madtoms. Great little fish with big ouches if the stick ya. A tip for catching them. Go to your local bait store and purchase a minnow trap. Bait it with something tasty (chicken liver inside panty hose works well). Drop it in a local creek that holds madtoms one evening and you should have a few madtoms and lots of creek minnows by morning. I've caught baby chained pikeral, baby sunfish, baby small and large mouth bass, and crayfish this way.

[ChilDawg]

Thanks, Firefighter! I'll be doing that as soon as I can convince my parents that setting up a tank for Madtoms is a positive thing (and as soon as the weather gets a little warmer, so as not to stress the fish).

[VoodooChild]

Hell man, we just go out during our collecting trips with a big electro-shocker, and then they just flow into the net. Heh, nab some for ya...black market madtoms. I just got a mental image of some shady guying opening up a trenchcoat going "I got what you need", with little jars of madtoms on the inside.

[ChilDawg]

That would be a little more fun to see than, say, a guy with the stereotypical coat full of pocketwatches!!!

[ChilDawg]

What do you end up collecting, the Stonecats (Notorus flavus) or the Tadpole Madtom (Notorus gyrinus)?

[VoodooChild]

We usually collect along the eastern side of Minnesota, either just short of Duluth or more often on the Zumbro River south of Rochester. By far the most common ones are the flavus, though the gyrinus are pretty frequently shocked and very rarely will we get an exilis (slender). I've never personally collected the exilis, just seen the specimens from the professors and their grad students.