Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Can hybrid cats reproduce?

Guys,

Can hybrid(bluexchannel) catfish reproduce in ponds?


The hatchery guy told me they can reproduce , just like other cat species. Is that true?


And any idea how large they can get?

Thanks.

SRAC
https://srac.tamu.edu/serveFactSheet/252

Hybrid fertility
The strains of channel catfish female and blue catfish male used to produce first generation (F1) C�B hybrids affects whether or not they can reproduce. Some F1 C�B hybrids can spawn and produce large numbers of second generation (F2) hybrids; other types of F1 C�B hybrids have low fertility or are essentially sterile. With difficulty, F1 C�B hybrids can be crossed with a pure strain of chan�nels or blues to produce backcross hybrids. However, the performance of these F2 and backcross hybrids is inferior to that of F1 hybrids and channel catfish. Therefore, pro�ducing fry from C�B hybrid parents is not recommended. To obtain genetic improvement and hybrid vigor, chan�nel catfish females must be mated with blue catfish males each year to produce F1 C�B hybrids for production.

Thanks man. Very helpful.

For some strange reason this sounds like a phone conversation that I had this afternoon.

Although ewest found an answer with greater depth and clarity.

Scott, i was in a hurry. So i started a thread too.

Ewest's article helped a lot and finally , the hatchery guy admitted it : "Well. They won't make very healthy offsprings" .

Anyways, i got 1 week old blue cats from Halletsville. I paid for 100 of them but i think i got more than 300. Well, impossible to count.

I have already ordered a brine shrimp hatching set.

Cool! You can count them, count when transferring from one container to another.

Fatih,

I am interested in HBC as well. Did they ship them to you?

Bill

No Bill. I was gonna drive and pick up. But very nice people at that hatchery. I am sure they would like to help. Hybrids are the way to go if you don't have reproduction goals.

Only if you are going to feed them and then harvest under the proper circumstances. Unless you have a specific goal/method to avoid the problems noted above.