1000 Gal Pond Questions

[CichlidKeeper01]

I’ve just got the 2 RTC’s a couple of nigers and 4 big old Pacu .. this pond hasn’t changed in 10 years. It’s really a low maintenance pond it’s on pretty much automated WC’s and I use a pond pressure filter as a prefilter that pumps up into a 240 gallon plastic tub filled with other plastic tubs to make kind of a giant sump/trickle type filter. It keeps pretty clear because of the prefiltration. I would do more but it worked so well for so long I’m kind scared to fiddle with it

Nice, that sounds cool. I definetly want to keep pacus at some point.

 

[taksan]

Look eventually it’s about the only fish you CAN keep with RTC’s ... I’ve had very bad luck with trying other fish... they all became fish food.

 

[amazonfishman]

With a proper well balanced diet they can and did get that big, we added them and monitored their growth rate, most of their growth accrued in the first year and a half, then slowed after that.

Do you have any pictures to back this up?

I've raised Channel Catfish in larger pond environments (1-5 acres) for close to 10 years now with ample and diverse food supply in the pond as well as additional pellet feeding and have never seen or heard of growth even remotely close to that.

There are literally dozens of scientific studies on aquaculture of Channel Catfish in ideal growing conditions showing the growth rates I previously described going from 6" to 12-14" and about 1lb in the first 6 months then slowing down after that. If you went from 6" to 18" in a year that would be a solid gain and only a total growth of 12". Even being generous and saying it made it from 6" to 21" would be half of the lower end of what you claim.

An example:
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/wkrec/guidelinesforproducingfoodsizechannelcatfish.htm

Those lengths would be difficult to reproduce even in super fast growing SA cats like TSN or RTC. You could probably get one to 30" power feeding in a year in a large pond setup but there is no way you're getting one to 40".

 

[CichlidKeeper01]

Look eventually it’s about the only fish you CAN keep with RTC’s ... I’ve had very bad luck with trying other fish... they all became fish food.

Do the pacus have a similar growth rate to RTCs?

 

[taksan]

Yeah they grow really fast ... but you have to feed them a lot of fresh fruits. Grapes and Strawberries are particularly favourites of theirs.

 

[CichlidKeeper01]

Thats cool, is that a normal part of their diet? I feed my cichlids vegtables about once a month.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Do you have any pictures to back this up?

I've raised Channel Catfish in larger pond environments (1-5 acres) for close to 10 years now with ample and diverse food supply in the pond as well as additional pellet feeding and have never seen or heard of growth even remotely close to that.

There are literally dozens of scientific studies on aquaculture of Channel Catfish in ideal growing conditions showing the growth rates I previously described going from 6" to 12-14" and about 1lb in the first 6 months then slowing down after that. If you went from 6" to 18" in a year that would be a solid gain and only a total growth of 12". Even being generous and saying it made it from 6" to 21" would be half of the lower end of what you claim.

An example:
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/wkrec/guidelinesforproducingfoodsizechannelcatfish.htm

Those lengths would be difficult to reproduce even in super fast growing SA cats like TSN or RTC. You could probably get one to 30" power feeding in a year in a large pond setup but there is no way you're getting one to 40".

Your link didn't work.

However, I find it funny you automatically mentioned pellets, because honestly I've rarely seen cc raised to large sizes on primarily pellet diet , probably because there is way to much junk content in them, and not enough protein, stuff like soybean meal inhibits growth., another thing to consider is the waters color, ideally the water should be somewhat stained with plankton, giving a greenish color to the water, one overlooked factor is that even adult fish consume plankton as part of their diet, this fact is often overlooked or not known to the casual hobbyist.
Furthermore water quality is paramount, without good water quality year round you will not see the results I mentioned, bad care produces small or dead fish, decent care produces decent fish, good care produces good fish and great care produces great fish.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I am late to this spirited and interesting discussion.

T taksan 20 gal per pound of fish, huh? Thank you for sharing that info. I'll have to keep it in mind. I wonder how close it comes out to the rule of thumb of 1 gallon per cubic inch of fish, which CichlidKeeper01 could take a note of too.

wednesday13 What's the opposite of fish police? You? Haha... Always happy to see your input. Russ, correct me if I am wrong but your fish in 1700 gal intex pool were of the skinny kinds, mostly TSN. A 2' channel catfish has the bulk of two 2' TSNs.

My channels reached about 2.5' in 3 years. At that size their head is gigantic, comparable to an RTC's head, and the body bulk is too RTC-like.

20 gal per pound of fish comes to 1000 gal per 50 lbs of fish. That's about 3-4 channel adults with still good growing to do.

On the other hand, a 2.5' channel has, say, crudely and conservatively 3" average width along the entire length (wide front and skinny rear in top view) and 4" average height. Then the fish volume comes out to 30" x 3" x 4" = 360 cubic inches. Which in turns means that three 2.5' channels would fit in 1000 gal by the rule of thumb (and all the caveats).

So it appears the gallon per cubic inch rule and the 20 gallons per pound rule come out rather close.

Oddball would tell us much more, if only he was available and had the time and desire.

*************************************

On a side note, the TSNs we get in our hobby are refuse. The RTCs not so much but still. Same with channels - refuse culls from the farming, albeit I realize the OP says his channels came from the wild.

With the RTCs, I noted that they may grow to different sizes based on gender, as we discussed with Wednesday. One sex, I used to think males but Wednesday says females, grows significantly longer and the head is significantly bulkier and flatter. In my group 3 biggest have the widest and flattest heads and are ~3.5' currently. Six others have a sloping head, narrower, and are 2.5'-3'.

 

[wednesday13]

thebiggerthebetter , somebody gotta do it haha... how does one progress in the hobby if they never try.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

thebiggerthebetter , somebody gotta do it haha... how does one progress in the hobby if they never try.

Agree but it's not about the extremes. "Never try" and "not/never try right" are different things. Of course, "right" allows for a lot of wiggle room and varies in people's perception.

I guess it's about aiming at doing it right by the state of the art understanding of scientists, aficionados, and experts and learning from the errors of others. I realize that the latter part is almost never done or never done well. I am the first offender. We all tend to learn best by committing the same stupid blunders that have been committed billions of times before us. When it hurts your feelings and your $$$, then we learn better. Well, most of us.