There are two things that I can think of that affect CC recruitment. I do have recruitment in all year classes in my main pond, by the way.
First is CC require a cavity to spawn. So if you want them to spawn put something in the pond they can use as a cavity. An old milk can, tractor or truck tire, an overturned stump that they can excavate under, a concrete slab perched on another concrete slab so there is an overhang with a protected area. In nature CC will find a hole under a tree that is undercut along side a stream or perhaps under a log in a log pile tree jam. They require someplace to protect their eggs. They need some sort of cavity for them to attempt to do that. If you don't want them to spawn (which is what most experts recommend - buy replacements as needed), don't put anything that remotely could be made into a cavity by the CC.
The second step in having CC recruitment is for the newly hatched fry to survive. Catfish form balls of fry that stay together for "protection in numbers" till they reach maybe an inch in length. They are very vulnerable to being picked off by predators. So even if you have a CC spawn, if your pond has a normal amount of predators (LMB, ect) none of the CC fry may survive. That is probably why the guy that sold you the fish said you would need to buy more.
In my case I had plenty of different things CC could use as spawning cavities (all of the above I mentioned) plus my LMB population has not done all that well with no LMB recruitment of any significance for the last three years. So in my case I had the conditions that favored CC recruitment. I have gotten my LMB numbers up this year by raising some fingerlings up to 12" in another pond and transferring them to my main pond. So I am curious now to see if the LMB prevent any more CC recruitment or if I still get new YOY CC next year. I like a small amount of CC recruitment but I have enough in my pond right now to last me the next two or three years if I don't get any more.
So as you can see, asking if you will get CC recruitment, the answer is "it depends". You can do certain management things that will either enhance your chances of CC recruitment or diminish them, depending on what you want.
With a quarter acre pond, the safest would be to manage to not have recruitment. Having said that, If you really like CC (my wife and I do for food) and are willing to feed them artificial feed and are willing to harvest to manage the population then having recruitment does not have to be a bad thing. It has not been for us. It just kind of depends on what your goals are. You can raise a lot of CC in a quarter acre if you feed them and aerate the pond. (and keep the otters out as John F on this forum will tell you. They about wiped his CC pond out)
BH catfish do not require cavities to spawn. They will spawn on a mud bottom. But a good LMB population is supposed to pretty much extirpate any reproduction also. That appears to be the case in my old refurbished pond. Used to have BH that were thick enough to be a nuisance catching so many small ones (that is the only pond that has BH). Now that the LMB population is there, hardly ever catch a BH.
Last edited by snrub; 11/06/18 12:14 PM.
