Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations What’s eating my channel cats?

Ok here’s a weird one. Twice in the past week I’ve seen a channel cat by itself in shallow water. Looked like a sick fish to me. Next day I found it dead with the body eaten - floating in the water. Today it happened again. Where I found the fish floating - body eaten - and bits of fish laying on the bottom u set the floating corpse. Otter? Possibly but I’ve seen zero otter sign. Snapping turtle? I have not seen one in my pond but certainly possible? I guess the whole thing is weird. Sick fish which either gets killed and partially eaten or dies and is partially eaten - in the water. Anyone have any guesses ? I’m stumped.

My vote would be turtles or birds. Crayfish would gladly eat a fish carcass but I doubt they'd eat them that fast.

Well I found a dead one today not eaten. This makes me think they are being eaten after they die. Which brings me to my next question which is why are they dying? They look perfectly healthy. I see another one in my pond now that looks fine but he’s swimming slow and breathing a lot. Any ideas?

My guess is that pond is low on oxygen.

Chuck wagon - sadly I think I’ve discovered the problem and posted a new thread. Pretty sure it’s a parasite that is killing my cats. My other fish which are more oxygen sensitive including my smallmouth bass are doing just fine.

Well half the problem is solved. The cats are dying and snapping turtle is eating them. I just hope they stop dying.

That sucks about your CCs. What area of Western NY are you in? I'm originally from the Seneca Lake/Keuka Lake area of Western NY if you know where that is. If I had known CCs would live in that area, I would've found a way to get some into my friends' pond at the time. Didn't even know you could source them in NY.

Steve I’m quite familiar with your area. My wife and I used to stay at the glenora every summer. I’m further west though near jamestown. Between buffalo and erie pa.

I have heard that CC are sensitive to copper like copper sulfate or Cutrine type chemicals.

Is there a chance you treated heavily with an algae reducing chemical recently?

I'm no expert at this. I just recall CC being sensitive to it and I have always wondered about it when I treated the border of my pond with Cutrine. I never had any bad effects that I noticed but I only treated a very small percentage of the pond area.

Thanks for the reply snrub. I have not used anything recently. I had two more dead yesterday but the good news is none today. I also didn’t see any sick ones in the shallows today so I have my fingers crossed. The symptoms I saw were exactly the description of proliferative Gill disease. Apparently it is common down south in catfish farms. I see no reference to it up north but I do know I added some cats last year that I believe came from the south. Obviously I’m just guessing but o suppose it’s possible. I’m hoping the few I lost will be it. I was encouraged today. I’ll see what tomorrow brings.

During feeding we are seeing a "bunch" of CC in our pond. Nearly every one we fillet seems to be a female filled with eggs too.

I need to come up with an efficient trap to remove a larger number at a time. We catch and clean quite a few but I need to thin the herd even more. Large numbers of 1.5# size so they will be excellent for harvest size by this fall.

We have had successful CC spawns and recruitment every year so I have not added any additional CC since the original stocking. We have to keep removing them to keep the numbers down.

Have finally got the LMB to successfully spawn and have added a bunch of SMB so maybe the bass population will keep the CC recuitment down or maybe even eliminate it. I would really like it if we could just keep the CC recruitment down to about 20-40 fish a year. That would meed our needs without over populating the pond with CC.

Well no more dead CC today and I’m not seeing any in the shallows. Maybe things will be ok. Interesting Snrub that you mentioned breeding. I did not anticipate breeding as I’m up north and I did not put breeding structure in. Last night I did see a couple very small CC. It’s possible that they are runts I stocked last fall - but it’s also possible that Nature found a way. Time will tell.

If you stocked them last fall it is unlikely they were mature enough to spawn this year. At least I don't think so. Maybe the experts say differently. I would think it would be next year before they might spawn.

I have lots of structure they can use. Not specifically spawning cavities designed for them, but over turned stumps, ledges, some old tanks, etc. Anything they can make a hole in to protect they can use to spawn.

Sorry my post wasn’t clear. I have added CC for three years now. Last year I stocked some that had some really small runts. But the original fish I stocked are now about 3 pounds or so. I was trying to say that I am unsure whether the small cats I saw were last years runts or the spawn of my original stickers. Sorry I use too few words sometimes

They definitely could be recruits then.

If the CC can find any kind of cavity they can protect they will try to spawn. Even a hole in the bank made by a former beaver or something like that. Big flat rock with an area under it, etc. In the rivers they will be under tree root balls that have been undercut by current, under submerged logs, etc.

I don't know if the female CC are more prone to being caught by hook and line or if the split in my pond is more female, but seems like 9 out of 10 wife fillets has eggs. Got one 3# out in the holding pen right now we need to go out and clean this morning. I bet it will be a female full of eggs.

We have a ton of 1-2#'er CC that we will have to really get after harvesting this fall. Or we will have too many too big next year. I keep saying I need to come up with a trapping or netting system to harvest more efficiently than just fishing for them. But have done nothing about it yet.