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#477933 08/10/17 10:45 AM
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let me start by saying I am new to the site and nothing like a pond expert.
I do own one 2.5 acre pond and another 1.5 acer old pond that has had the levee broken for years (before I bought it) I just had the banks cleaned off and the levee repaired so now im just waiting for wet weather to fill it up, and in the spring my plan is to stock it with channel cat for stocking my freezer .
my question is; is there anything I can do fairly easily and with out breaking the bank to help in that goal? my first thought was to put some old plastic culverts in for spawning beds.
I left some of the old snags and logs in the bottom of the pond for cover but have been told these may be bad ideas. thanks for any help.

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Submerging plastic barrels or even 5-gallon buckets stuck together forming a tub open on one end can serve as easy to manage spawning sites. I make so the provided cavities are 18 to 24 inches deep. A well placed hollow log with inside diameter of 12" or a little more will also be well received by males.

Culverts would work well.


I would space nesting sites at least 20 feet apart to reduce discord between breeding males.

Just a couple spawns per year will get you where you want to be.

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Welcome lovetohunt! First off, I'm no CC spawning expert but my 2 cents are that as long as big catfish can fit in and it is cheap plastic culverts will work. Due to the size of the pond, you will want as many as you can get.


0.7 acre pond stocked 2020, LMB, PS, YP.
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I did not specifically try to get CC recruitment in my 3 acre pond, but I have recruitment from every year they were old enough to spawn. So far so good.

Some of the structure I provided that I suspect they are using are some concrete slab ledges I put at the edge of drop off areas about 5' deep. I took big concrete slabs from demolition and propped them up with concrete pieces underneath part of the slab.

I have a couple of tire piles that include some big truck and even tractor tires.

I have large stumps from 18-24" diameter trees that I left the stump portion a few feet long, turned the stump with root mass over on its side, then laid large concrete chunk to make sure the stump did not float till it waterlogged. This left a cavity under the stump.

I have multiple scrap concrete foundations pieces stacked up Lincoln Log style.

Have several scrap plastic containers of various types and shapes with rocks to hold them down that they may be using.

Not sure which of the above they are using but if I fish with a small jig close to the bank I can catch 6" fingerlings and I can also catch 1# CC with my original stockers in the 3-4# range. Been removing and eating all of them I can catch.

I hope I can keep a steady modest population via recruitment. We filleted 50 BG and 2 CC a couple nights ago, and the CC meat piles up a whole lot quicker than the BG and to us they both taste equally as good. So we like a modest population of CC in our pond.


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From SRAC :https://srac.tamu.edu/serveFactSheet/153

Spawning containers
Channel catfish are “cavity spawners”
and require a chamber into
which they can deposit eggs. Eggs
adhere to one another and form a
large sponge-like mass or matrix
when the spawning process is completed
(Fig. 1). Spawning cavities
can be fabricated from objects such
as ammunition cans, aluminum
milk cans, plastic buckets or barrels.
The opening should be 5 to 7 inches
(12.7 to 17.8 cm) in diameter so larger
fish can enter. Container volume
should be at least 10 gallons (38 L),
with 15 to 20 gallons (57 to 76 L)
being optimal.
If eggs are transferred from the
spawning containers to the hatchery
two to three times each week, a
ratio of one container for every
three to four female brooders is
adequate. For ease of collection
and best spawning success, containers
should be placed in water 2
to 3 feet (61 to 91 cm) deep around
the pond perimeter, and spaced 6
to 7 feet (2 m) apart. There is less
spawning at depths below 3 feet
(1 m) because of low dissolved
oxygen in the morning at lower
depths.
The spawning season lasts several
weeks. At peak spawning times it
is not likely that more than 20 percent
of females will spawn during
a 48-hour period.

Last edited by ewest; 08/10/17 05:27 PM.















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Do you think a 55 gallon plastic drum cut to where there's a little lip on the bottom to keep eggs from falling out?

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Eggs / embryos will not fall out as embedded in a big brain like mass that kind looks like tapioca jelly. Hatched sac-fry are likely to stay piled up near where father keeps his head and belly while ventilating brood. In my experience the sac-fry can move about well enough to stay as a group where they need to be. Dad key to that. Without dad like in a raceway, sac-fry might pile up but do not try to stay anywhere in particular. Fry will be the ones that come out as school.


Lip could prevent straggler sac-fry from coming out.

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so sounds like everybody agrees that fish cover (spawning boxes) is a good idea I just need to come up with some cheap/available material to use.
how deep should I place them? I was thinking there is a bank it the little pond that would be at about 4 to 6 ft deep but only enough room to put maybe 4 or 5 pipes or boxes.
thanks to everybody for your input and help on this.

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I put in four culverts in about three FOW when the pond was first renovated. The only spawning age CC I had last year were three 2-3 lb albinos I got from a nearby (15 miles) intermittent source. Even though a Lonoke CC farmer told me it was next to impossible, I think I got some recruitment (at least one new albino CC survived). Why else would I have caught a 13-inch albino in my pond three weeks ago when all the other survivors from 11 albinos I stocked were at least 13" by end of season last year, and near three pounds or more now?

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Originally Posted By: John F
I put in four culverts in about three FOW when the pond was first renovated. The only spawning age CC I had last year were three 2-3 lb albinos I got from a nearby (15 miles) intermittent source. Even though a Lonoke CC farmer told me it was next to impossible, I think I got some recruitment (at least one new albino CC survived). Why else would I have caught a 13-inch albino in my pond three weeks ago when all the other survivors from 11 albinos I stocked were at least 13" by end of season last year, and near three pounds or more now?


A lot of albinos I see are from where both dark parents carry the albino allele.

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From what I have been told by fish farmers here in Arkansas, if both CC parents are albino, all the offspring should be albino.

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Originally Posted By: John F
From what I have been told by fish farmers here in Arkansas, if both CC parents are albino, all the offspring should be albino.


You are correct. I crossed to thoughts in my mind thinking you had only wild-type CC's doing the breeding. My apologies.

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FWIW, I stocked CC a number of years ago and clipped the adipose fin off of all of them.

Fast forward 5 years, when the CC are now all 5#-7#. I caught one that was 12" in length.

I started to panic thinking I had reproduction in the pond, then I noticed that the adipose fin was missing........... It never grew.


www.hoosierpondpros.com


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You made me go do a search on adipose fins esshup. Found this PDF download that was interesting.

Use of the adipose fin

Talk about a thread hijack.......................


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Everybody should learn something new every day. Glad that I could be of help! grin


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Originally Posted By: esshup
FWIW, I stocked CC a number of years ago and clipped the adipose fin off of all of them.

Fast forward 5 years, when the CC are now all 5#-7#. I caught one that was 12" in length.

I started to panic thinking I had reproduction in the pond, then I noticed that the adipose fin was missing........... It never grew.


Thanks esshup.

That 13 inch albino CC may be one of my original albino stockers that I put in in early May of 2016. I never saw it this year until I caught it, so for some reason it never comes to feed, and did not grow. It probably didn't come to feed last year either. It's still in the pond, AFAIK. The CC I stocked in my new pond this past March are now about as big as that one albino.

I have noticed that my regular (gray) CC all stocked at the same time at 5-8 inches in fall 2015 now vary widely in size, caught and weighed from 1 lb 14 oz up to 5 lbs even, but I didn't realize that some may fail to grow much altogether.

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I didn't realize that either until I caught that one.


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).

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