Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Catfish food

What do catfish mainly eat in a pond with just perch? Do they eat plant matter? I was told by the guy that sold me the catfish that they dont need to be stocked with anything because they mainly eat plant matter and bugs.

zach, my book says "channel cats aren't the least bit finicky when it comes to food. live worms, salamanders, maggots, leeches, catapillars, insects, frogs, fish, mussels, and crayfish are among the creatures they eat. The dead and smelly are also relished" they eat little in the way of plant matter. they will also grow significantly slower if you do not pellet feed them. channel cats take to pellet feed as well as any fish. feed 'em. it's inexpensive and fun. i have several that are nearing 20 years old. it is quite a show each evening to watch them churn up the surface as they chow down on the pellets.

Thanks for the info. Yea i figured that was bull. I dont feed my catfish but they grew to 1 pound to 2 pounds in 6 months on crawfish, mosquito fish, perch, and freshwater shrimp. So i dont know if im going to feed or not but if they start getting skinny i will feed them pellets.

here's another thought. the pellet feed will cost you a lot less than the crawfish, mosquito fish, perch and freshwater shrimp; unless each of those species is reproducing faster than the cats can consume them. if is the least bit convient, try pellets. even a once a day feeding by hand will help them to grow faster, and will help you keep your forage base intact.

My catfish eat plants. I usually catch a few at a time and keep them in a tank until I have enough to clean. They throw up pond weeds. I have cleaned some within an hour and they had fresh bushy pondweed in their stomaches. What really surprised me was when I went to feed the hybrid stripers their high powered, extra smelly feed, the catfish would eat duckweed instead. Well, they would eat fish food if the duckweed was blown to the bank but wwhen it was mixed with the fish food, they ate whatever was there.

Speaking about duckweed the tank i have catfish in has none to speak of. the rest of my tanks are nearly covered with it so i guess they do eat a little weeds.