"J-man" wrote in message
...

George how big and old is the channel catfish you have?

The channel cat was about 14 inches long when I bought it, so that would
have made it at least one year old at that time. I've had it for about two
years, so he is at least three and no older than four years old. It is
over 30 inches long, and I would venture a guess and say about 10 lbs.
Hence the name, Gargantua. The pond is about 1,400 gallons. It generally
gets along with the other fish, except when hit feeds, and then it chases
the others out of the area where it is eating, with the exception of the
larger Koi. They seem to like playing a game of tag with the catfish, and
will often snatch up its food when it is circling to make another pass at
the pellets. Mind you, this catfish pretty much grew up in the same pond
as these other fish, so he is used to them being around. I would never
even consider putting a wild catfish in this pond. It would have a field
day with these quite docile fish.

The goldfish generally are well aware of where the catfish is when it is
eating and stay out of its way. They don't seem to have any fear of it,
just a healthy respect. Occasionally, one of the younger (one year old)
goldfish will go after a morsel at the same time that the catfish will, and
become catfish food. Tragic as that is, I already have too many goldfish,
and the only reason why I bought the things in the first place was as
feeder goldfish for the big guy. Unfortunately, the catfish ate four out
of the twelve feeder goldfish that I bought, and after that, it mostly lost
interest. The goldfish have since spawned a number of times.

I have found that since the catfish is an albino, and is more susceptible
to infections than the other fish, it does better with dry food than live
food. I ocassionally feed it shrimp, but even with that food, the catfish
will ocassionally become ill if it eats too much of that delicacy. So I
try to feed it only generic catfish pellets, and ocassionally feed it other
food. And like I said, if someone small enough gets in its way (only when
it is feeding), it will do what catfish are want to do. I have to watch
the little ones at feeding time, and shoo them away sometimes to prevent an
'accident.

George Wrote:
"Priscilla McCullough" wrote in message
...-
They are georgous!!
Thanks for sharing the pictures.
Priss
" George" wrote in message
news:Vqeye.120821$_o.3997@attbi_s71...-
Hi all. Haven't posted any new pics in a while. Here are the latest
of
some of my porkers, hamming it up for the camera:

http://tinyurl.com/avu8t

These are high resolution images, so it may take the page a while to
load if you have a slow connect. Be patient, it'll be worth it.

Enjoy,

George
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-

Thanks. My fish thank you, too.

george


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J-man