I mentioned in a previous thread that I was raising fingerling Cc in a stock tank. I don’t have a local source for larger cats and wanted to raise some for release in my ponds that have lmb. My goal was to grow them large enough to avoid being a snack for the bass . I started this back in May and today was the release day. I did not take weights and measurements but I was quite surprised at the extreme difference in growth. I would say that about 50% grew from 2” to about 6” and are likely to survive just fine (I don’t have big lmb at this point). The surprises were the extremes. I had about 20% that appeared to grow so slightly that I question whether they grew at all. And then I had about 10% that grew so significantly that I’m surprised they didn’t eat the non-growers. They were easily double the size of the 50% median population. So basically I started with a bunch of 2” fish last May and ended up with fish that ranged from barely more than 2” all the way up to 8 or 9” with the bulk of them in the 6” category. I fully expected some variation in growth. I did not expect it to be so extreme. Just sharing my experience. Nothing too exciting. Carry on. 😊

I'm on year 3 from my initial CC stocking
I noticed the same thing. Some of them grew much faster than others.
The smaller fish definitely are more "shy" when it comes to chow time.

I also have CC in my pond, I only stocked a few 5 years ago. Was told they will not spawn in a small pond. Today I have a number of classes of CC and the oldest ones are in the 10-12 pound range and about 26-30 inches. You were hoping to grow them large enough not to be a snack, but there may be a time when the reverse may be true, I have few LMB left. Just passing on a warning, if they get really big they will get whatever fits into their mouth!

Funky - So much for the correct knowledge of your advisor about CC reproducing. Always be careful what you believe without checking on PBoss for a 2nd opinion. CC almost always find a way to reproduce in water bodies. It is just CC fry in most water bodies are eaten by some sort of predator especially when the fry are schooling.

I get curious about things. I wonder if some are still so small because they don’t have the genetics for growth? Or are they small because there were other more aggressive fish which caused them to eat less. As a little experiment I kept 10 of the smallest in my stock tank. Just going to keep them a while to see if they begin to feed more aggressively now that the larger fish are gone. My suspicion is that they just don’t have the genetics for rapid growth but I suspect I’ll be able to know for sure within a short amount of time.