Channel Catfish Breeding or Spawning Behavior!!!!

[doubledragon]

Can anybody enlighten me with any facts about channel cats breeding or spawning behavior. I got a pair??????? I think? Maybe?

I've watched my albino channel cats grow into the 19" to 20" monsters that they are now, and really have noticed weird behaviors.

1. They are both the same length but the big one is huge in girth compared to the small one. Everywhere the head is much more broader and the mid section is also much, much, thicker.
2. 93% of the time the big one picks on the little one for territory or just no reason at all. The other part of the time the role is reversed. (And the little one packs a heck of a punch)
3. The big one eats good all the time and the little one eats good atleast once a week and dosen't show much interest in food till he's hungry. This only started 3 to 4 months ago. ( When he is hungry he comes to the top over and over and I put handfulls of smelt right in his mouth.)
4. Sometimes in the middle of a quarell, the little one will shimmy and display his fins and curl his tail.(much like my cichlids do.) Ive even seen this behavior with no fight present. This also just started 3 to 4 month's ago.

Any info will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[Kobeclone]

I have no idea, but considering their size now, 19 inches, and their eventual size, 3 foot, they should be sexually mature. I fish for them and eat them, but I don't keep them. Bump.

Edit: I am 100% they are sexually mature because I have caught females that were 15 inches that were full of eggs.

 

[doubledragon]

bump

 

[stotty]

found this

External morphology: Lateral line complete, terminating at the base of the caudal rays (Sublette et al. 1990). Pectoral fin spine contained less than five times in standard length; caudal fin deeply forked; head rounded; adipose fin free at tip, not joined to caudal fin (Hubbs et al. 1991). Males with a distinctive urogenital papilla extending posteriorly, which is absent in females; there being one opening behind the vent in males, and two openings behind the vent in females (Moen 1959). In males, the head is wider than the body; in females, head is scarcely as wide as body (Davis 1959). In breeding male, head becomes massive because of the swelling of the cranial musculature. Fin membranes thickened in breeding males (Sublette et al. 1990). Breeding males also have thickened lips and swellings behind the eyes (Crawford 1957).

might help

 

[Dovii dude]

Good luck with this.