How do I care for a channel cat?

[fishy_sue]

Okay, I have a received a channel cat as a gift. I need to keep him in a 55 gal tank until his new pond is ready in two months. He is four inches long. How much food? What should I do before I put him in the pond? Thanks

 

[Rallysman]

From my experience they will eat anything that will fit in their mouth. They grow fast, and their mouths are bigger than they look

 

[fishy_sue]

I want to feed him enouch to live until his pond is done but I don't want him growing out of the tank before his pond is done. He is about 4inches right now

 

[Grundy]

They tend to like things on the bottom so shrimp pellets work well. If you can get krill down there he would probably go for it.

 

[Yoemen]

Just to let you know, if you are trying to slow his growth good luck, catfish are some of the most effecient food processing animals on the planet. They are nearly or right at 100% conversion of food into mass. Being cold blooded is a big bonus. I think chickens have highest warm blooded conversion rate and they are still about 2.5 lbs of food per lb of gain. So in other words, he is gonna grow pretty dang fast no matter what you do short of starving him.

 

[monkey_toes]

They are nearly or right at 100% conversion of food into mass.

That would mean catfish don't poop. Lemme tell ya right now that catfish really know how to poop.

As to the original question, I can't imagine it would be possible to feed a four-inch catfish enough food for it to outgrow a 55G in two months. Six months, maybe —*but not two.

 

[Yoemen]

hmm

well that would be the nearly. I was just pointing out they are very effecient.

 

[DaisyTattoo]

You could feed him redworms or nightcrawlers as well. They also like algae tablets although it's not ideal. I would probably go with the shrimp pellets as already suggested. He will be eating your fish anyway if there are any in the tank, so you might not have to worry about food for him

 

[Yoemen]

hmm

well, actually since he has a channel cat, if there is plenty of stuff on the bottom to eat he should leave anything alive alone. Channels, like any north american freshwater cats except for Yellows, are primarily carrion eaters and generally won't put the effort into live food unless they are really hungry.

Which is why you fish for most cats with chicken liver or stink bait. Now, if you are going for yellow cat, it has to be alive generally as they don't like carrion.

 

[kntrygrl4lyfe]

I know I have 2 2 1/2 inch spotted bullheads, and I put in like 14-20 feeder guppies and the next day.. they were all gone, and his belly was huge, lol. only one was the other one i dont think had a chance to et that much lol I used to have 2 channel cats when I was younger and i think all really used were the little cubed foods. and they didnt get to big after 2 months with that. only like an inch or so if that