14 replies to this topic

[Michael Wolfe]

Is there a big danger of it eating all of my fish...?

It's not a danger, it is a likelihood.

[Michael Wolfe]

I wasn't trying to be difficult. Its just that all catfish are predatory on everything that fits in their mouth. And they hunt at night while the other fish are asleep. So if you have a catfish that has a 1 inch wide mouth, they might very likely be able to swallow a 3 inch sunfish. And a pickerel is a long slender fish that is at risk as well.

So you might be able to make it work if the catfish is small enough, but catfish grow quickly, so I doubt that the set up would be sustainable. But there are some others here that have tried... maybe they will speak up and give you some more specifics... I wouldn't risk it.

[Sean Phillips]

Stonecat once your fish get larger if you like them and Margined Madtom would probably be good even now.

[Michael Wolfe]

noooooooo not the dreaded margined madtom... the fish eating machine....see the old thread

http://forum.nanfa.o...argined +madtom

[Sean Phillips]

I remember you telling me about your Margineds Michael . I think the sunfish are a bit to tall bodied to get eaten though.

[Michael Wolfe]

you may be right... they were eating shiners when they got on my bad side... now I just deliver the shout out against them at every chance... teach them to cross me!

[Sean Phillips]

Haha, sounds like me with cichlids.

[Sean Phillips]

Thanks for the help, now I just have to figure out how to get one.

No problem. A trip to your local creek with a seine and or dipnet and a few hours might yield one or two.

[Freshwater13]

I have a very similar dilemma. My aquarium is a 135 gallon (long), I'm looking for a bottom feeder that can go with 3-Green Sunfish. I have heard from people in other forums that I may want to consider a Bullhead Catfish because of their smaller size. But I would like to get thoughts on that from the catfish experts on here.

 

Note: This will be a fish purchased from a provider such as; Jonah's Aquarium, Zimmerman's Fish, Smith Creek Fish Farm, Etc.

[smbass]

It is all about size compatibility. I would contest that bullheads and larger madtoms make great tank mates for larger sunfish species. It is just all in keeping the sunfish and the bullhead close enough in size. Sunfish seem to know that catfish have spines and they leave them alone even when the sunfish are significantly larger. Also even rather large bullheads do not try to eat large (but yet smaller than them) sunfish if they are well fed and happy. I had two spotted bullheads in my 200 gallon sunfish tank last winter and they only ate the smallest sunfish in the tank. That one sunfish was a longear which really had no business being in there with all the larger sunfish. The bullheads were 8" and said longear was about 3". All the other larger 4-7" sunfish coexisted just fine with the bullheads. I used to have a large stonecat that lived in that tank too for about 4 years. It just lived inside a hollow log and it did not bother the sunfish and they did not bother it.

As Michael experienced catfish are much better at eating soft bodied narrow cyprinids. Some madtoms seem very anti fish eating though. I have had some species coexist very well in with smaller darters and cyrpinids and then others are just total bad news and destruction like the margined and stonecat. Brindled madtoms never seem to eat other fish when well cared for even though some of their tank mates seemingly would make an easy meal. Had similar experience with Ozark and Elegant madtoms also making good stream tank inhabitants. Tadpoles although relatively small were bad news for their neighbors even in the collection bucket!

So in summary it depends a lot on the situation and the size of the fish in question. Keeping tank mates similar in size helps a lot and knowing a little about the species and situation can also help.

[Sean Phillips]

I have a very similar dilemma. My aquarium is a 135 gallon (long), I'm looking for a bottom feeder that can go with 3-Green Sunfish. I have heard from people in other forums that I may want to consider a Bullhead Catfish because of their smaller size. But I would like to get thoughts on that from the catfish experts on here.
 
Note: This will be a fish purchased from a provider such as; Jonah's Aquarium, Zimmerman's Fish, Smith Creek Fish Farm, Etc.

I wouldn't consider bullheads to be "small" but I can see how one would get that perception after comparing them to Ictalurus sps. They're definitely great vacuum cleaners and hardy enough to live with and be able to compete with for food with sunfish. One going to consider though is that they're extremely messy fish. I've got 3 catfish in my 75 gallon (1 Yellow Bullhead, 1 Gibbiceps Pleco, and 1 Striped Raph) and I just barely get by doing weekly 50% WCs. Just something to consider before getting one, they're great fish though and my biggest yellow bullhead is my favorite fish.