Blue Catfish
- Thread starter sarabowser
- Start date
ahaha oops. My computer has a mind of it's own sometimes!
But..... Hey there! I'm Sara and I'm brand spanking new to this forum. But I am trying to set up a 75 gallon fresh water tank. and I want to put a Blue Channel Catfish in it. I was just wondering some things about how to set up my tank for this sort of fish. Like what kind of plants would beneficial for it? Should I use sand or pea gravel? Also where can I find some really cool drift wood?Thank you!!
Sara
ahaha oops. My computer has a mind of it's own sometimes!
Thank you!!
Sara
Welcome to the forum Sara, always glad to have more addicts
! Sorry to let you down after you just joined but 75 gallons is not big enough for a blue catfish (I assume we are talking Icatalurus furcatus) long term. An adult blue catfish would need easily 500 gallons plus. Channels I'd say 300 plus. They also both grow very fast so you wouldn't have a whole lot of time to upgrade. There are however plenty of great options for a 75 gallon. If you want a native catfish even most bullheads would outgrow the tank in a year or two's time but the smaller bullheads such as flats, snails, and spotteds if you can get one would go perfect in there long term, even with a sunfish or two! 75 is a great size to start with though, so many options, are there any other fish you're interested in since sadly a blue gets to big (believe me if I could have even a single channel in my 75 I would but it's just not big enough sadly).
I forgot to ask, is this your first tank? If so do you know about the Nitrogen Cycle (VERY important)? Also, with your idea of blue catfish. Are you more of a catfish fan or a native fan? Because depending in that I could give you several good suggestions for each.
Greetings, Sarah!
Channels grow to 1'-1.5' from ~3" in one year. ~2' in 2 years. ~2.5' and ~25 lbs in 3 years. Mine did and plenty of others. At 2', this fish will need a tank with a footprint of 12' x 6' at a minimum, IMO. If you are prepared for this, then there is a point in starting answering other questions.
Channels grow to 1'-1.5' from ~3" in one year. ~2' in 2 years. ~2.5' and ~25 lbs in 3 years. Mine did and plenty of others. At 2', this fish will need a tank with a footprint of 12' x 6' at a minimum, IMO. If you are prepared for this, then there is a point in starting answering other questions.
Get the tank set up and cycled then there are many catfish options for your 75g but a channel cat won't do well in it long term, likely well under a year. Sand is a great substrate for most cats.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Some good cats for your size tank would be
four line pimelodus
ornate pimelodus
noturus sps.
yellow bullhead (May get to big but probably not)
snail bullhead
flat bullhead
spotted bullhead
a bunch more and depending on whether you plan on upgrading (if you do how soon) I can give a whole list full of cats! Many of the ones listed above would even be fine with a tankmate or two.
also if you don't have the tank yet and want a more monstrous catfish then check out a 180, an 18" cat that doesn't swim ballistically like channel would probably be fine in one such as irwini cats, Tigrinus (probably), Sorubim sps., etc
four line pimelodus
ornate pimelodus
noturus sps.
yellow bullhead (May get to big but probably not)
snail bullhead
flat bullhead
spotted bullhead
a bunch more and depending on whether you plan on upgrading (if you do how soon) I can give a whole list full of cats! Many of the ones listed above would even be fine with a tankmate or two.
also if you don't have the tank yet and want a more monstrous catfish then check out a 180, an 18" cat that doesn't swim ballistically like channel would probably be fine in one such as irwini cats, Tigrinus (probably), Sorubim sps., etc