Catfish water CONSTANTLY fouling.

jagarundi

jagarundi

Bonafide, 100% Cichlid Lover!!
Oct 6, 2004
259
0
16
Hello all,

Ok, so for the past 3 months, I've housed my Albino Channel Cat in a 75 gallon by himself until my 330 gallon tank arrives in another month or so. Since he's been in the tank, I find myself having to change the water at LEAST twice a week because it's constantly fouling and turning green. I have two AC 200 filters on it and the tank was cycled long ago when I had the Oscars in it a while back. The water stays clear for maybe 3 days tops before I have to change it again. :devil: Because of his size, I only feed him once a week and his diet consists of Hikari gold pellets, beef heart, blood worms and the occasional Rosy every now and then. It can't be the food because I feed this food to my other meat eaters in my other tanks and that water stays pristine between weekly changes. Anybody know what's going on?
 
Your filtartion is terribly inadequate, as I suspect, are your water-changes....channel cats are very messy fish...you are going to need at least two Fluval FX5s to keep that 330 even reasonably clean (especially when that cat hits 4'+ long and 50lbs).
 
Last edited:
My boyfriend has an ACC in his tank and has the same problem. It is virtually impossible to keep up with the mess these fish make. My suggestion to you, which is the same suggestion I give my BF, is to find a pond for Mr. Catfish. Not only the mess, but I have found that his startles very easily and this could become a major problem as they get bigger. They won't need to be very large before they can slam themselves into the glass and bust the tank wide open. I have seen a Pacu that has done this and let me tell you, your catfish will get much larger than a pacu ever will. Good luck with your fish, I just wish that the LFS's would stop selling tankbusters like those.
 
You do realize how big Chanel cat gets? and how fast?

My albino Chanel outgrew my 55 gal, then my 180 then my 280 and is now in a friends pond! He is well over 2 1/2 ft! (and growing)

Albino Chanel is probably the first fish I have come across that is messier then common plecos and oscars.

SO many people buy them as little tiny babies thinking they are cute (I fell for it too regrettably not knowing what I was buying) and they quickly outgrow any size tank that most people can afford. It's a beautful fish IMO but not many can keep them. It was hard to give him up but it was in his best interest and that to me is what is important. I was lucky that I had somewhere to put him. I now stop people from buying them in petstores because of this. Petsmart sells them and cheap so people are drawn to them and wanna stuff them in their 10gals. Little to they know what they are getting! So yeah I speak up and talk to the managers....funny I haven't seen them in awhile. BUT I do see the large ones as results of outgrowing their tanks at home and returned to the LFS.

So my advise here is unless you plan on building a really big pond for him, I start looking for a new home that will meet his needs elsewhere.

Even your 330 with proper filtration will not be enough for him even if he was alone in the tank.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Last edited:
Mudfrog said:
Agree'd, way under filtrated.. How big is the cat currently?
Click to expand...


He's approaching 2 feet. He's officially reached tank buster status. I've tried giving away to the LFS but they won't take him. There's no way I'm releasing him into a pond and messing up a eco system. Last resort would be to euthanize and I've gone through that already with Pacus. It's not a good feeling.
 
This is definately caused by lack of filtration and having such a large messy fish in such a small tank.

With that 330 gallon tank get a wet/dry system going with a sump.

If not that, get several large canister filters.
 
2 feet :D YUMMMMM!!!

119783006_l.jpg


Need step by step in skinnning filet and nuggeting ??

HAHA.. Ummm.. Ya 2 foot Channel in a 75 ...hhhmmmm... Feel for ya.. You will have to do daily water changes in MY opinion..
 
Last edited:
If your LFS will not take him, you might try calling around to local aquarium places, large sports outlets and whatnot. I know the georgia aquarium stocked it's silver arrowana from donated fish, and they may well have room for another channel cat. Some big outlets like BassPro Outlet (darn it, that's not the name but it's close) maintain a 2500 gallon freshwater tank as part of their floor plan, and they include channel cats in what's swimming there. Don't give up on farming him out to a happy healthy envrionment just yet, cause unless you're ready to flood the basement, you're gonna be doing a lot of water changes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom