Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Albino channel catfish

I would like to find about 10 to 12 five to eight inch Albino CC to put in my pond. The fish truck came today and had zero. Where would I find a small number of these? Maybe have them shipped? Thanks?

John, it would most likely be less expensive for you to call around to the fish hatcheries in Arkansas and drive to pick them up. Catfish don't ship very well. Their spines tend to puncture plastic bags, and they don't survive for very long without water.

There are probably well over 100 hatcheries in Arkansas, and I'd be willing to bet that a number of them have albinos.

The Lonoke hatcheries are about 3.5 hours to drive. Would they survive OK, maybe 3 to 4 to a bag? I only know of 4 hatceries that have CC. Is there a list somewhere of most of them?

John, I'm not aware of any AR hatchery breeding for albino's. They normally get a few, but never a lot.

Try Hopper-Stephens, JM Malone and Son's, or Farm Cat...all in Lonoke.

5-8" CC will travel fine if double bagged, and could travel in 1-2 bags.

The guy that brought in my Albino Cats got them in Arkansas, but I'm not sure of the exact hatchery.

I would call some of the Ark hatcheries...one of them will be able to get them for you, but most may not be too excited about such a small quantity. I assume albinos are very prone to predation so maybe get a few more.

Or you could try this if nobody local can help you.

Albino Channel Cats on e-Bay

I have found, after researching extensively, that no hatchery in Arkansas is currently offering Albino CC. Occasionally they will find a few, but don't pick them out for sale. They all quit breeding them because it became unprofitable due to predation by cormorants.

I wish cormorants would become so rare they would be put on the endangered list.

I found a guy in Ohio who is now breeding them, but a box of a dozen 6 to 8 inch ones is $90.50 shipped by air. Going to keep searching until I find a few within two hour drive. I only want about 10-12 of them, and afraid that air shipping would result only in dead catfish.

John, I ship via FedEx overnight and same day air freight quite often...it is a very reliable way to get fish. Did you try Arkansas Pondstockers and Farmcat, in AR?

Osage Catfish farm in Missouri near Lake Ozark used to have albinos...not sure if they do anymore.

If that $99 was including the shipping price, then the fish really aren't that expensive.

I have tried them all. They all quit breeding Albinos due to excessive predation losses. I have not seen cormorants around here; I am about 190 miles by road from Lonoke.

The price I got from Ohio is $90.50/dozen including shipping.

Jones fish hatchery is in Ohio but they have albino cc always

The place I found them in Ohio is Sugar Creek Fishery in Lima, OH.

Jones said they no longer have albinos. Apparently Sugar Creek Hatchery has cornered the market. They supposedly bought out the albino CC stock of JM Malone in Lonoke early last fall, and maybe some others too.

Nemo Fisheries in Perry, Missouri has them but doesn't look like they ship them.

I have some in my pond if they spawn I'll get you some if u want.

Logan hollow fish farms in southern IL offered them thru my counties fish sale earlier this spring. So they may have some left.

I talked with Moore's Fish Farm near Inola, Oklahoma over the weekend (100 mile drive on good roads). He recently seined and is collecting some albinos for me in his holding tanks. He currently has six, and may have ten to twelve in about ten days. If so, I will go and get them. I don't want to risk shipping catfish. It's expensive, and live arrival, if guaranteed, never includes replacement shipping. The spines could penetrate the bags and all be DOA. I will bring a big cooler with 5 gallon buckets within.

I got ten albinos 6 to 11 inches today at Moore's Fish Farm. Only ten dollars for the lot. Made it home with them still lively, then acclimated and released them into my pond. About an hour later saw one of them swimming on the opposite side of the pond from release point. I guess they likely explore the whole pond upon release. Now have 12 albinos.

Glad you found what you wanted. Ought to be easy to spot in the water.

Bet they will become pets.

John...once you've gone albino you'll never go back!

I intend to leave the albinos in to see how big I can grow them. As for the 65 regular channels I stocked, the plan is to catch most of them out as soon as they reach a good eating size. I am hand feeding morning and evening, what they will consume in about 10 minutes, a mix of catfish pellets and optimal, until the half bag of pellets is gone, then it will be all optimal sunfish food, since the BG eat alongside the CC. Some of those regular CC are considerably larger than others already; I guess they are "shooters". I really don't know how many survived the winter; I found nearly dead 6" one in Feb, that later died.

Now I might raise albinos myself. I found that a distant neighbor (27 miles) has a few albino channels in their pond. They seined it recently. I got three about 17 inches each. One appears to be a female full of eggs. At least one of the other two is male, I think. They are the only breeding sized CC in my pond. I have placed five culverts in four to five feet of water. I wonder what percentage of the offspring will be albino? That might be a question for the BOSS?

if both parents are albino than all of them will be albino.

if one is albino and one is not and the one that is not does not carry the recessive albino gene than none will be albino.

if one is albino and one is not but carries the genes about 50% will be albino.

Then, I think if they spawn, all the spawn will be albino. Probably most of the fry would get eaten by BG, but I have two brush piles and several brick piles and large rocks in the pond for hiding places, in addition to the culverts, so maybe some will survive.

John, IMO, virtually none of the young will survive predation unless you can segregate them. I stocked 150 CC's in one of my ponds 15 years ago. To the best of my knowledge maybe one has escaped predation.

I have only 2 left.

Dave, did you mean you stocked 150 Albino CC? If I could capture some of them (trapping?), I could put them in my FH minnow pond until they reach 5 inches or so. How would I catch catfish fry? My pond is too deep and has too much structure to be seined.