I'm thinking of trying to start breeding these guys. I have a concrete tank available: it's approximately 48" X 48" X 36" deep, and it's in a greenhouse that is more stable temp-wise than outdoors, but less so than indoors (sometimes drops to the 50's in chilly weather and rises to the 80's in hot weather). Will this work for keeping and breeding fatheads? Is it big enough to produce a fairly large number of fish continuously (a few dozen every week)?

I have read that half-flowerpots for nest caves help encourage breeding; is there a particular size that works best? Are there any other tips any one can offer me?

I'm thinking of trying to start breeding these guys. I have a concrete tank available: it's approximately 48" X 48" X 36" deep, and it's in a greenhouse that is more stable temp-wise than outdoors, but less so than indoors (sometimes drops to the 50's in chilly weather and rises to the 80's in hot weather). Will this work for keeping and breeding fatheads? Is it big enough to produce a fairly large number of fish continuously (a few dozen every week)?

I have read that half-flowerpots for nest caves help encourage breeding; is there a particular size that works best? Are there any other tips any one can offer me?

Fatheads will breed with 16 hours of day-light. Your going to have to separate the young/eggs if you want good production. Or you could add LOTS of plants like elodea, water hyacinth, water lettuce, hornwort, etc. If your planning to use them for feeders, it'll take a few weeks to raise them up to an appropriate size, depending on what your feed them to.

Any kind of cave will work. I'm using 4" PVC pipe.

Thanks.

I'm trying to keep this on the cheap, so I'll probably just feed them crushed koi chow, algae, and live daphnia; does that sound reasonable?