Raising Catfish in a barrel!! 11-03-2011 UPDATE!!

[gmendoza]

Well its been 7 months now with catfish in a barrel and here is the results:

we had 40 catfish to begin...left with 3

cursed city of rock hill overclorinated their water and it killed off all but 3 when it happened in june. These three will be my starter fish next year.It seems I have two males and one female so Im looking to get a 50 gallon aquarium for them so we can bring them inside for the winter.

It didnt totaly fail...I still have fish.

Will post pics tomorrow. I have a 1/2 day of work on fridays.

 

[krcote]

Quote:
Thanks for the update!

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Quote:
Dang, that stinks that that happened to you! I'm glad you still have a few left though. Is there any way you could add something to the water to help with chlorine? I know they make dechlorinators for small scale tanks. Not sure if they make something for larger scale tanks.

 

[Kassaundra]

So is your intention to grow year round or put new fish in the tank in the spring and grow through the summer, then start again in the spring? How much does it cost to buy the original fish? Had you considered using a broken chest freezer?

I am definately thinking about trying this w/ some modifications, very interesting. I can see how it might fit into my suburban "homestead" of growing as much of our own food as possible. One of the big system problems I see is loss of power, it seems very dependent on electricity and seems a winter power failure might crash the whole system.

 

[gmendoza]

Quote:
True. Aloss of power will kill the whole system. Thats why next year Im going all out to make Barrel ponics but be solar powered.

A chest freezer? good idea. I wanted to actually SEE if this was feaseable and not some hoax before venturing on diffrent ideas. It is feaseable. The original fish were .60 cents per fingerling I think. You have to find a good place that delivers in your area. A big truck came to our local farmers exchange and I just bought them there.

I got mine from Dunns Fish Farm:

http://www.dunnsfishfarm.com/fingerling_fish_59_ctg.htm

 

[SillyChicken]

you may want to consider a rain collection system to save water for the fish rather than risk using city water again.

 

[gmendoza]

Quote:
On the menu for next year at the funny farm:

Barrel-ponics (already sketched and planning)
Solar power start
rain water collection system ( already sketched out)

 

[SillyChicken]

Good going!


We stocked 100 catfish in our pond this spring.. I sure hope they survive the winter! We've not tried fishing for them so we don't know if any are even still alive anyway!

When you get set up you'll have to update with some photos!!

 

[Country Living Farm]

not sure if thisis the right place for this comment or not ut here goes. I have a pond in the backyard I want to put catfish in. But the pond is dirty. I put a turtle in it and I have not seen it since? How do I clean the pond to make it safe for fish and not so dirty?

Tks

 

[CluckyJay]

Country Living Farm,

How big is your pond? Turtles are nasty and dirty water quickly.

If you can use a waterpump to keep circulation going, why not try digging another pond, a bog garden of sorts. You allow the pond water to run through the bog garden, which should be full of cleansing plants such as cattails and canna lilies. Submerged plants work well too, I like to use bladderwort as an additional cleanser.

The now clean water should spill into your pond. I'd probably make sure the turtle isn't in there as it will probably eat your fingerlings.

A lot of people use lavarock as a substrate for the bog area.