"Pinkpggy" wrote in message
...
Here is my catfish:

Wow!! thats quite a catfish. I know when our catfish comes too close to the
koi while eating, they kind of jump out of the way. I have watched to see if
he is biting them, and haven't seen him do that. My hubby thought maybe he is
stinging them with his whiskers.
Jan
"Our Pond" Page
http://hometown.aol.com/pinkpggy/index.html

No, the stinging part really is a myth. They have no venom. I know that the
scientific name for channel catfish means "stinging fish", but it comes from the
fact that if you handle one with your bare hands, you risk getting impaled on
it's rigid barbels, or the fins, which are quite strong and sharp. If you look
closely at the lateral fins, you will note that the front edge of them are
barbed. Those barbs are really the ones to watch out for when handling these
fish, as the best place to handle them (if you dare to do so) is behind the
lateral fins, yet they tend to thrash back and forth to get loose, and you can
easily get impaled on those barbs. This is why I don't handle them with my
hands. I do a lot of fishing, and I know from experience that if one of those
barbs gets you, it is very painful. And if you don't disinfect the wound right
away, it can become infected. This is likely why they were named "stinging
fish".

As for him going after your fish, if you raise them up together from fingerlings
or even juveniles, or with a fairly large school, and the other fish aren't
really little, he will likely not intentionally try to eat them. I bought a
dozen feeder goldfish for him to eat when I first bought him, and he only ate
four. The rest are unfortunately now part of the community. When he gets
older, and a lot larger - well, I guess we shall see.

These large catfish are extemely territorial, and will chase others away,
especially when eating, and snip at them, but will usually not eat the other
fish in the pond, or do great damage if he is kept well fed. If not, he will
eat anything he can get in his mouth. And you did notice the size of the mouth
relative to the body, didn't you? I feed him twice a day (at sunrise, and at
sunset). In the spring and fall, I try to feed him late at night instead of in
the morning, because that is when they normally feed in the wild. In the
summer, he'll eat whenever you present him with food.

During the winter, like all pond fish, he mostly stops eating when it gets below
a certain temperature. For this fish, this last winter, that temperature was
around 50 F. I hope this helps you with yours. I've always wanted to raise one
of these beauties, but never had the space before now to do one justice. I
really enjoy this one. He's probably the most magnificant fish I've ever
raised, and I've been raising fish for about 35 years.

FYI. If you are interested in seeing a really large catfish, you won't find a
bigger one that the European Wel:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...urus/338_2.php

http://www.aquariacentral.com/specie...view_records=1