)V(ONSTER Flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) grow out thread.

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cgibby said:
sorry this is a bit of topic but I was just curious if you've ever recieved a bagarius skull?


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Oh yeah just remembered. Someone had offered to send me the head of his after he eats it? Dont remember who now lol. If you are implying an offer feel free to send a pm. I will pay shipping charges for any catfish of intrests. :-)

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Merry Catfishmas everyone. :-)

So anyway was digging up flathead info out of curiosity and turns out that 50% of flatheads are sexually mature at just 15". Mine is over 20". Also it seems that flatheads have a generally short lifespan for what we think of for large fish. They live on average 10-15 years with really rare ones living to 20+ and the record is 25 years. This has really sparked my curiosity. I need to do more research but i am thinking their growth does not slow as much as other large catfish as they grow. The commercial fishing record is 150 lbs. Not sure of its age but probably around the 20+ mark easily. This means if the fish was 20 it put on an average of 7.5 lbs per year over its life. I am curious to count the growth rings on the 70+ lbs one i am preparig the skull of to see if this holds true for it also. Not to mention fluffy here had some pretty decent growth his first year. Seems pretty fast to sexual maturity for a large catfish species. Most seem to take 3-5 years on average but their life spans are also 30+ years.

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:-) lol this may only be exciting to me but i counted the growth rings on the 74 lbs flatty. It was 11 yo at time of death. Puts it on par with the growth of the 150 lbs one. :-)

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I am a huge flathead need as you see by my avatar. I am interested in that stuff as well. I would imagine growth rate varies from fish to fish. They do grow pretty fast though.


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necrocanis said:
Merry Catfishmas everyone. :-)

So anyway was digging up flathead info out of curiosity and turns out that 50% of flatheads are sexually mature at just 15". Mine is over 20". Also it seems that flatheads have a generally short lifespan for what we think of for large fish. They live on average 10-15 years with really rare ones living to 20+ and the record is 25 years. This has really sparked my curiosity. I need to do more research but i am thinking their growth does not slow as much as other large catfish as they grow. The commercial fishing record is 150 lbs. Not sure of its age but probably around the 20+ mark easily. This means if the fish was 20 it put on an average of 7.5 lbs per year over its life. I am curious to count the growth rings on the 70+ lbs one i am preparig the skull of to see if this holds true for it also. Not to mention fluffy here had some pretty decent growth his first year. Seems pretty fast to sexual maturity for a large catfish species. Most seem to take 3-5 years on average but their life spans are also 30+ years.

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Very interesting information,,I assumed they are long lived slow growing catfish. That makes sense as I see lots of big cats pulled from the river and lakes around AZ.. Been that way for countless years.

A years or so ago kevin and I went collecting on the lower salt river only to fine compleat and udder death of all aquatic life due to a golden algae bloom, we saw countless large cats dead and thousands of river carp,bass and so on...This year that same river is producing massive cats..


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moosemj said:
I am a huge flathead need as you see by my avatar. I am interested in that stuff as well. I would imagine growth rate varies from fish to fish. They do grow pretty fast though.


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Yes this is true of all species of fish. I just find it interesting. I would speculate 5-10 lbs of growth per year possible. The most interesting thing to me is the small sexual maturity size. This means the fish is likely ready to breed after its first year of life.

This is exciting for me since i would like to try some hybrids with this fish but also from research flatheads are one of the tougher species to hybridize. Even attempts with other NA native catfish were not very successful. Lol i have visions of FHC x TSN. :-) or maybe even FHC x sperata.

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I will be looking for controlled studies on the growth of fhc. One thing i find interesting is in most studies of other species growth of the fish is very similar within a species under identical environments and feed. I am thinking fhc are probably similar in this. Also want to look at determining the sex of this fish now. I tried when it was much smaller but wasnt exactly mature. So now that this fish is potentially mature i should be able to sex it. I will try later today.

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Without getting too invasive it's very difficult to sex them from what I understand.

The size of the mouth of a flathead makes them prone to over eating which in turn makes them prone to quick growth. Growth rates are tricky because they vary over the course of their lives. Early on fish grow exponentially and then slow down. Not sure how much info is out there about it. I am working on a study with the Illinois department of natural resources about flatheads. We have been tagging them, I will see what the recaptures indicate about growth rates.


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moosemj said:
Without getting too invasive it's very difficult to sex them from what I understand.

The size of the mouth of a flathead makes them prone to over eating which in turn makes them prone to quick growth. Growth rates are tricky because they vary over the course of their lives. Early on fish grow exponentially and then slow down. Not sure how much info is out there about it. I am working on a study with the Illinois department of natural resources about flatheads. We have been tagging them, I will see what the recaptures indicate about growth rates.


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That should be interesting. Also in aquariums where the temps are regulated and winter is nullified one would expect faster growth than in the wild. I do already understand diminishing returns over the lifespan of the fish. I am curious though. Is it the length that slows or the weight gain also. As a fish gets larger it will add more weight per length than it did while smaller. Weight isnt proportionate per inch of fish of different size. So a 24" fish will weigh less per inch than a 48" fish. So the 24" fish might add .25 lbs when it adds another inch but the 48 inch fish might add 5-10 lbs in that next inch. These arent actual numbers just reference to explain my thinking. I did have documentation for sexing flatheads based on external features. If i remember it isnt 100% more like 75% accurate. I need to find it again. Sux losing all your reference materials.

I wish i had your job lol. Tagging and measuring catfish all day!!!



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Also interesting to note here thatbthe skeletons of the aquarium raised catfish i have prepared still show seasonal growth rings which i find strange. The fish are kept at constant temps and regular feed rates. It would seem there would be no definite growth rings if this was the case. So maybe genetically based on other factors they have higher growth rates during certain times of the year regardless of environmental factors.

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