It has been a couple of months, but I wanted to report back here just in case it will help someone else. I kept careful records of the CC mortality. After about 2.5 weeks after the stocking, the dying simply stopped--almost cold turkey.
I wound up talking to another fish supplier--his opinion was that the catfish that I got from APS were simply stressed when I got them. He may well be right. As it was, I lost about 130 out of the 400 that I originally stocked. In reality, after hearing from you guys and some others, that is a good start to getting the #'s back down to something reasonable anyway. Lesson learned. When APS came around to give the warranty fish (whatever was lost in the first 3 days), I said no more CC--and they gave me FHM, shellcrackers, and a few LMB instead.
Due to the recent rain, my pond is now completely full--way ahead of when I expected. I guess runoff will do that. Built a pier, and am now looking forward to future seasons! Thanks to everyone for the help.
