It's natural instinct will be to hunt. Don't keep it with anything the same size or smaller. With nothing else to eat and worms available in the dark, when it's hungry it will supplement a lack of live fish with live worms in my opinion.
Chinese wels care and pond size
- Thread starter GeorgeHaddaway15
- Start date
It was a great read, thank you for sharing and being thorough.
I'd not worry about hunter awakening. Your ferret had prey available / within reach. With fish it is easier - make sure your catfish doesn't by having no or only larger tank mates. Plus fish are far, far more primitive.
If your water is as it should be, zero ppm ammonia and nitrite and low nitrate by a liquid test kit and it is well aerated and stirred and stable in terms of pH and temp and the hardness and TDS are neither too low nor too high... that is if an earnest and thorough troubleshooting doesn't raise any red flags or concerns and the fish doesn't look or act sick, I would merely be offering the catfish the feed you want it to be on until it starts eating in its own time... granted there are no swallowable tank mates as Dave says.
Also keep in mind fish go through periods of feeding less or not at all, seasonal things, and that your water is still cold, so the catfish probably needs less feed and digests the feed slower. 10 F lower temp could mean for instance 2x-4x slower digestion as it is an exponential function.
In sum, check your basics at each and any sign of discontent or trouble or problem. If all checks out, read more on the species in your spare time, double up your observation and let the things unfold for a bit as they will. Don't worry too much. We can do only what we can, and you are old enough to know sickness and health, life and death go hand in hand for all living and breathing organisms.
I'd not worry about hunter awakening. Your ferret had prey available / within reach. With fish it is easier - make sure your catfish doesn't by having no or only larger tank mates. Plus fish are far, far more primitive.
If your water is as it should be, zero ppm ammonia and nitrite and low nitrate by a liquid test kit and it is well aerated and stirred and stable in terms of pH and temp and the hardness and TDS are neither too low nor too high... that is if an earnest and thorough troubleshooting doesn't raise any red flags or concerns and the fish doesn't look or act sick, I would merely be offering the catfish the feed you want it to be on until it starts eating in its own time... granted there are no swallowable tank mates as Dave says.
Also keep in mind fish go through periods of feeding less or not at all, seasonal things, and that your water is still cold, so the catfish probably needs less feed and digests the feed slower. 10 F lower temp could mean for instance 2x-4x slower digestion as it is an exponential function.
In sum, check your basics at each and any sign of discontent or trouble or problem. If all checks out, read more on the species in your spare time, double up your observation and let the things unfold for a bit as they will. Don't worry too much. We can do only what we can, and you are old enough to know sickness and health, life and death go hand in hand for all living and breathing organisms.
I just checked my parameters again. Ammonia is at 0 PPM. Everything else is low enough to not be a concern. PH is at 8.0, we have well water. I have 6 large aerators running. I would like to thank everyone that chipped in for their help. I'll keep updating you guys as time goes on. I've also been trying something. I put a thawed minnow where he usually frequents, then I turn the lights off and wait 30 minutes. After turning the lights back on, I come back and usually the minnow is gone. It may be the sturgeon, but the sturgeon have really small mouthes and I don't think they could eat such a large minnow. Usually they can't even eat half a minnow. At about 8 PM yesterday I put a small piece of worm in to feed my brook trout. If you guys ever can keep a brook trout, they are amazing fish. After I dropped it in, the catfish swooped in and ate it. It made me super excited! So now I can tell you guys that he is eating, just not as much as he would in warm water.
Like I said, I will keep posting updates as time goes on. So you guys will know if anything happens.
Like I said, I will keep posting updates as time goes on. So you guys will know if anything happens.
