I'm buying one, or might catch one of these for my 11x4x1-3ft deep pond, what's thier care, and how big do they get, the pond has a clown knife, jaguar cichlid, lmb, green terror, jack dempsey, and bluegill, it's 700 gallons, or around it
flathead cat care
- Thread starter troppond
- Start date
700 G is way to small for a Flathead and they will eat EVERYTHING in there. I believe the world record flathead was just over 123 lb. Yes thats One-Hundred twenty three pounds.
700 gallons is not too small for a flathead, they are very inactive fish but expect all the rest to become food eventually...
your looking at a catfish that will eventually get pretty big 24"+. They are voracious predators and will eat anything they can. unless your other fish are huge they will probably get eaten and hell grow pretty fast. ENJOY!
I agree with Moontanman that 700g is not to small for one Flathead......But Gators right if you put him in with the rest of your fish they WILL become snacks, think Rtc in temperment; Flathead are the only native catfish that eat only live food and large ones have been known to eat medium size Bass.
" Generally large live baits are preferred such as river herring, shad, sunfish (such as bluegill), suckers, carp, goldfish, drum, and bullheads ranging from 5–12 inches (13–30 cm) in length. Sometimes nearly as much time and effort is spent catching baitfish ahead of time as is spent fishing for flatheads."". Like most catfish, flatheads are benthic feeders and prefer live prey. " When ever we fished for flatheads we would use live creek chub or sunfish....I was always told that "Mud or Yellow cats" as their called around here would only take live prey.....but according to Wikipedia and Planet catfish up above, and.they say PREFER live prey.....so I admit I could be wrong. The river I fish in has both Channel cats and Flatheads and Ive only caught Channels and bullheads with dead bait (like cut up carp or chicken livers) never a Flathead (or spinner baits,yes thats right I caught a 9 pounder once on a mepps); and Flatheads and channels on live bait (Channels will eat anything) so I agree with any catfish will eat live,that may just be these rivers though....Ive never fished for Flathead outside the Missouri and grand rivers near KC, so they may feed differently where your from (we only have channels in the James near home). Dreams I didnt realize you guys had Flatheads in Maryland? What river do you fish for them in?
How can a flathead be purchased? I live in the northeast where I can not simply go net a baby or try and catch a small one. I would really like to grow one out from a small juvie, like a few inches. Any thoughts? I feel as though moving them across state lines may be a tad illegal though...