It’s finally happening, but it’s actually happening
- Thread starter The Masked Shadow
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- pond
Also taking this little area out to free up space. This was originally where the pond was supposed to go. Chopped the 15’+ bottle brush down lol.
Never know until u try ? Prob more than fine with that stock list. I wouldn’t worry about the catfish spines either. As they grow they actually get duller. Its the 6-12” u have to worry about and at that size i doubt they could really even get through 45mil epdm. Ive kept liner tanks and ponds for yrs with all sorts of cat species… only problems i ever had were with pacu and most esp. distichodus sexfasciatus… no bueno lol… The rock work will be more worry some for holes. Use a good underlayment
Should I build a couple large caves for them?What bottom do you recommend with them? I think gravel will breakDo you know anything about sunfish?
I've never kept them together but wouldn't channel catfish eat sunfish? That sounds to me like the coldwater equivalent of having a red tail catfish with an oscar (which is one of the fish they tend to eat often).
Not the bottle brush!!!
Just go with one singular gigantic Murray cod. It would love it.
Koi are a must - it’s my dads money that’s paying for this pond! It’s his backyard! I’m just creating it lol. As long as he gets a couple koi, he’ll be happy.
Sunfish grow a lot faster than catfish, and I think if I got a large species like Shellcracker or Bluegill it could work… though you bring up a good point.
Pretty unlikely… channels grow very slow IME… even a wild adult will not often consume a large gill/sunnie… they are more so scavengers. Used to fish for them with 1-2” gill chunks, soft oily creek chubs or 6” suckers. Full size/live gills r for flatties lol… channels mouths are pretty small. Y there often kept with koi and sold by many koi suppliers for such. They just cant take down large meals like that. Sure a 10-15yr old channel may feed on juvi/sub adult gills. Adult gills are tall bodied tho and a channel would have trouble gettin em down into their gullet. RTC vs oscar isnt a good comparison. Even a 30”+ channels mouth is much smaller than say a 24” RTC that could take down a gill/oscar. 30” channel would also be 15yrs old range. I kept one for 13 yrs, it was a mere 26”… the gills would reach adult size long before a channel was ever over 18-20” even.
I wonder how koi would do in a pond with Murray cod, considering how the common carp is thought to have an impact on the decline of them in the Murray Darling Basin.
i cant speak for channel but i know for sure that an adult bullhead will leave everything above 12cm alone. They are always hungry but wont even try a fast fish like a cichlid and def prefer pea's or shrimp over a live fish. as said before they really scavenge and dont really hunt. Mine was a friendly giant atleast. I even was able to keep 8cm small bichirs with him while he was around 30cm
