Author Topic: catfish transport (Read 1420 times)

triggermortis · « **on:** June 05, 2003, 08:31:16 AM »

Hello boys,

A friend of mine that raises catfish in his pond, mostly for feeding and having 'pets', wants to give me some of the biggest ones so that he can start over with fingerlings.

These fish will be in the 5-10 pound range, and will be released in my FISHING pond. Our ponds are about 45 minutes to an hour apart, and my question is, what is the best way to get these fish from one place to another?

These fish have had a pampered life, but I figure these channel cats are tuff enough to make the trip in a clean 55 gallon drum of water. If I'm wrong, tell me how you'd do it.

T. Mortis

shb · « **Reply #1 on:** June 09, 2003, 12:08:19 PM »

Welcome Trigger mortis, what a great on-line name.

Your question has a lot of variables involved. Most important is how many fish you intend to haul per trip. Five or six fish that size will probably do just fine if you have a lid to contain the sloshing, which will also do a little re-oxygenating. I have used a 100gal oblong round end horse tank to haul 10 cats from 6 to 15 lbs and a couple of wipers. We took them to a private pond that was about 70 minutes from the private pond we caught them out of, and they did just fine. You can hook up a 12 volt areation pump from wal-mart for less than 30.00 bucks. I don't know but I think that if you try to haul too many at once the will use up all the oxygen and go belly up on you. Better to be over oxygenated than under.

good luck

hope to hear from you again on the cat forum.

triggermortis · « **Reply #2 on:** June 12, 2003, 05:23:33 AM »

SHB,
That sounds like some good advice. I'll make sure i have a lid for the drum. I'm gonna check into that aeraeter (sp?) at walmart right now. Between the two ways you've suggested, i'm sure i can get'em to my pond in good shape.

As far as weeds and moss, my pond had been the best lookin' in the area until just lately, and seems to have overnite started lookin' like the rest of them, with moss makin' it real hard to fish. I recently put 5 grass eatin' carp in there, i'm ready for them to start makin' a big dent in that crap. I also have a backhoe lined up to come out and dig out the sides as far as he can reach all around the perimeter and make it deeper at the bank. That's gonna cut down on weeds and moss also.

T. Mortis

shb · « **Reply #3 on:** June 13, 2003, 11:48:08 AM »

sounds like you got you a real nice fishin hole going there I hope you enjoy it with as many youngsters as possible.

triggermortis · « **Reply #4 on:** June 15, 2003, 11:41:52 AM »

Yes, we've encouraged friends to bring their kids out out, and a lot of them have. By next year, it should be a 1st class fishin' hole.

T. Mortis (81 weeks to go)

hillbill · « **Reply #5 on:** June 29, 2003, 04:16:11 PM »

hey trig! drastic temp changes do more to hurt fish than anything. use water from pond they came out of and make sure the new pond is within 5 degrees or gradually add new pond water to your transport tanks to bring temps to same. this is what they told us when we bought some stocking fish for our ponds years ago. good luk!!!