Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Blue Catfish

It all depends on the size of predator fish in your pond. Will the smaller ones get eaten?

To be up front about it I do have bass in both ponds...So if I go with the 4 to 6 inch fishh I will have to do Cage culture on them until they get to a LARGE size... With 12 to 14 inch fish I don't need a cage. Atl least I think i don't need a cage..Bass could not be any larger than 10 lbs. I'M SURE!...
Got some big channels but they sould not pose a threat either.

But for the smaller fish that Kenneth has I would need a cage FOR SURE.
The cage will cost around 250 bucks as a guess.

Expensive cage..



Could be built for alot less..

Where can i find a good cage? and waht size would I need?

Through the search function.. It's been covered pretty extensively..

Thanks George and TJ for the referrals those are priceless. I usually have beer on tap, sometimes homebrew, always something interesting.

My current stock of blues are advanced size fingerlings, 12"+, avg weight 3/4 - 1lb, feed trained, experienced, conditioned, disease free, $5 per lb, and you will get what you pay for. We will sell out and then we plan to have more small fingerlings available in Fall 2012.

Come on BigPond, make the drive, you need a road trip.

IIRC, I built two cages, both about 4 1/2' x 4 1/2' x 4' deep for around $160. That includes plastic mesh, PVC fitting and pipe, zip ties, etc. I had chicken wire here that I used for a lid.

esshup,

What stocking rate would you have on a cage like this??

Where can I get the mesh? Are you selling these? If so can you ship it down south? It would seem to cost a pretty penny to ship because its big and aquward..

So again, if I had 4 to 6 inch catfish how many could I grow in this cage?

I bought the mesh from Stoney Creek http://stoneycreekequip.com/ and bought the rest of the supplies from Lowes. One roll of 50' x 4' was enough to make 2 cages like that. IIRC the mesh was the 1/2" mesh. I am close enough to them that I drove up there and purchased it from them rather than have them ship it. They offer special 3-way fittings or there are other PVC suppliers on the 'net that offer them. Lowes didn't have them, so I just used "T"'s and 90's. I had the chickenwire here that I used for the top, bleach bottles for floats. I used over 100 zip ties per cage. I drilled 3/16" holes in the bottom framework, and another set of holes about 1/2 way up the uprights so it'd float with the bottom down. Maybe I didn't have to do that, but I felt better doing so. The frame was made from 1" PVC and glued together.

As for stocking densities, in the beginning I think you could fit all the smaller CC in one cage, after a few months, and as they grow, split them into 2 cages. Bill Cody, Cecil or others that are more familiar with aquaculture might be able to give you a better answer.

Just curious, are there still no connections for blue catfish in or near GA? I know some lakes that have them but transportation would be somewhat illegal I would imagine