wild catfish in pond with goldfish

13 years ago

I have a 5000 gallon pond that we have had feeder goldfish in for decades and we love our guys tremendously. Someone has offered us a two inch wild caught catfish for our pond. They have had it since they caught it in a stream when it was only a half inch long and kept it in a twenty gallon aquarium. Now whiskers is two inches long and is nibbling the tails of the other aquarium fish.

My questions are;

Has anyone had experience with having a wild caught catfish in their pond- did they have any problems with the catfish injuring the fish as it got older.

AND

Or should I just release old whiskers back to the stream where he was caught in?

Thanks, Chris

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Comments (16)

rsingley
13 years ago
Whiskers will thoroughly enjoy snacking on your pond full of feeder goldfish.
pondmaninal
13 years ago
I say keep it and feed it plenty of food. I've never had a problem with a wild catfish being in my pond.
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duddlydoright
13 years ago
I Had some catfish with my shubunkins in a aquarium when i first started out, they ate of of my fishes eyes, That was the last time i had catfish.
helenh
13 years ago
A kid brought a little flathead catfish to school which I put in our aquarium. It hid at the bottom all day; after school I heard a whoosh - no goldfish. The cat fish was not much bigger than the goldfish.
pikecoe
13 years ago
He will be much happier in the stream in which he was caught. And you will be much happier as well as your goldies won't be all eaten by Whiskers.
pondmaninal
13 years ago
So, a pond is exactly the same thing as an aquarium. I say that because all the negatives that I've heard are from aquariums, not ponds.
hardin
13 years ago
I have an albino catfish in my pond with my koi and goldies. My daughter bought him at the pet store. I don't know if there is a difference in 'attitude' between wild caught and aquarium raised, but so far 'Albert' hasn't bothered the others yet and he been in there for a year. He has grown from a four incher to 12 inches. I hand feed him hot dogs and fish pellets each evening. If I am not out there pond-side on time, he will be waiting on me at 'his' rock. If he does ever bother the others, I am not sure what I will do. Hubby and I have discussed building another pond just for him. : )

Vickie

{{gwi:195759}}
ccoombs1
13 years ago
Catfish DO eat fish, it's just a matter of time before it happens. And never add wild caught fish to your pond. Wild caught fish can be loaded with a variety of parasites which can easily infect and kill domesticated fish because domesticated fish lack the hardiness that wild fish have.
louisea_2010
13 years ago
I have a natural pond, 40x40x5. Five years ago I put a 20 inch blue channel cat (Bubba)in the pond to keep the bottom clean. I also added 7 bluegill. The same year my sister bought me 20 feeder fish to get the pond going. I have since added 7 select koi that started at 3 inches or smaller. Bubba is now about 2 1/2 feet long I can hand feed him, and I've seen fry less then an inch long swimming around him. I'm not saying he doesn't take an extra protien snack every now and then, but he is not overtly aggressive with any of the fish. We also have a large pond at our garden center with 2 yellow cats, about 2 feet long, that show no aggression toward our koi.
horton
13 years ago
Piecoe and Cindy gave you the best answers. Put the wild fish back in the stream where it came from. It could have parasites as Cindy said and they could endanger your other fish.
Anyone who tells you that it is okay to introduce any type of fish from the wild, into a garden pond with domestic fish in it, is definitely not thinking of the possible negative consequences.
"Horton"
aprillbuchholz_yahoo_com
12 years ago
I have a pond in eastern South Dakota that has a combination of goldfish, koi, perch, bluegill, bullhead, white bass, chub minnows, and other minnows...along with snails and crayfish. The pond is about 4500 gallons and totally freezes over in the winter. The minnows seem to disappear so I get more to replace them. Other than that everone in the pond seems to get along just great. I caught all the wild critters myself in the lakes and marshes near us.
cliff_and_joann
12 years ago
Our friend (when new to ponding) was so delighted
when a friend gave him a nice big catfish for his
pond, as he had only small koi and was ecstatic
to see a substantial size fish swimming around.

Next morning the koi were no longer residents of
his pond, yummmm!
He netted the catfish and gave it to
another 'new' ponder that was sooo delighted to get
a nice big fish for his pond... :)
buyorsell888
12 years ago
Put Whiskers back into the stream he was caught from.
pondmaninal
12 years ago
Yeah, just leave the wild caught catfish to us more experienced ponders that know what to do.
pikecoe
12 years ago
I am wondering what happened to Whiskers and this post was from last year and several months have elapsed since it was started??
Tracy Saepharn
8 years ago
I had got my flathead catfish when it was 2 inch long very tiny and a small 2 inch bluegill the same day from my parents they love fish then threw both in the tank on January 2015 both for them love each other my catfish alway follow the bluegill ik they both love each other I keep both in a 30 gal