I have kept Bullheads on gravel and sand and personally I think sand is a better substrate for them, although I have kept them on gravel many times with no ill effects. While "hunting" for food Bullheads will pick up rocks and them spit them back out. I eliminate this by hand-feeding my bullhead at the top.
Bullheads "Yawning" is IMO perfectly normal, I have never had one that didnt "Yawn". Larger ones seem to do it more often than the smaller ones for some reason.
"Flicking" is what you are referring to as his scratching his side. Dont worry too much the flicking. I have seen this behaviour before many times in Bullheads. Make sure the water quality in the tank is great. Do you add salt to the water?

I have kept Bullheads on gravel and sand and personally I think sand is a better substrate for them, although I have kept them on gravel many times with no ill effects. While "hunting" for food Bullheads will pick up rocks and them spit them back out. I eliminate this by hand-feeding my bullhead at the top.
Bullheads "Yawning" is IMO perfectly normal, I have never had one that didnt "Yawn". Larger ones seem to do it more often than the smaller ones for some reason.
"Flicking" is what you are referring to as his scratching his side. Dont worry too much the flicking. I have seen this behaviour before many times in Bullheads. Make sure the water quality in the tank is great. Do you add salt to the water?

I didn't see the 2nd page here until today. I've been looking for replies too! (da) I feel better about the behaviors. this fish was being hand fed before I got a larger tank, then he stopped doing that untill recently.
I do not add salt to the water, should I?

I was in Bass Pro Shops yesterday, and the big catfish were sucking in gravel and spitting it out. "Gravel" in this case being 1-2 inch stones!)

I have a sick fish. I'd appreciate any help.

I did a partial water change and I've done this before. The fish generally acts all shy for a few days and overly is skittish. After this last time, which was a week and 1 day ago, he is laying on the bottom of the tank alot, at times on his side. When he does swim, his mouth is doing that wide open thing and he's twitching like spasm's. These spasm's like things have made him run into the tank sides too. That wide open mouth thing is also going on while he's just laying on the rocks. I can see down his whole throat. now his feelers thingy's look limp and he hasn't hardly moved those large ones near his mout since last night I seen them move.

I would had guessed he'd died by now. But he hasn't. He hasn't eaten anything for 8 days that i've seen. I did add some stress coat, the water levels all test fine.

Has anyone had a sick bull head as I've described and is there anything I can do?

what are your water specs?

ammonia
nitrite
nitrate

have you added any other fish recently? even feeders

what is water temp?

when did you last do a water change?

this info will help us

what are your water specs?

ammonia
nitrite
nitrate

have you added any other fish recently? even feeders

what is water temp?

when did you last do a water change?

this info will help us

the levels are good for all 3. the water temps is between 74, 76, and 78. last water change was a week ago Tuesday, 8 days ago. and I have added no new anything, no other fish or feeders.

I have a sick fish. I'd appreciate any help.

I did a partial water change and I've done this before. The fish generally acts all shy for a few days and overly is skittish. After this last time, which was a week and 1 day ago, he is laying on the bottom of the tank alot, at times on his side. When he does swim, his mouth is doing that wide open thing and he's twitching like spasm's. These spasm's like things have made him run into the tank sides too. That wide open mouth thing is also going on while he's just laying on the rocks. I can see down his whole throat. now his feelers thingy's look limp and he hasn't hardly moved those large ones near his mout since last night I seen them move.

I would had guessed he'd died by now. But he hasn't. He hasn't eaten anything for 8 days that i've seen. I did add some stress coat, the water levels all test fine.

Has anyone had a sick bull head as I've described and is there anything I can do?

I'm wondering if he might have swallowed one of those pieces of gravel he'd been picking up. If it were caught somewhere in the throat (past where you can see it) the spasms could be attempts to dislodge it. That would also explain why he hasn't been eating. Lack of food would in turn make make him lethargic, especially if he were carrying around the extra weight of a chunk of gravel. Unfortunately, I don't know how you would determine if this were the problem or not, or what could be done if it is.

I'm wondering if he might have swallowed one of those pieces of gravel he'd been picking up. If it were caught somewhere in the throat (past where you can see it) the spasms could be attempts to dislodge it. That would also explain why he hasn't been eating. Lack of food would in turn make make him lethargic, especially if he were carrying around the extra weight of a chunk of gravel. Unfortunately, I don't know how you would determine if this were the problem or not, or what could be done if it is.

I wondered about the gravel too. His mouth thing now realy looks like he's trying to throw up, if a fish could ever appear to look that way. It's the best way to describe it. Last night I did a 25 percent water change and made it a bit cooler water, he did this real scary spasm and I thought oh no, he's a gonner for sure now. This was the worst one yet and he directly floated down to the bottom of the tank. This morning his swimming aroud like he should be, his mouth isn't doing that thing yet. If this fish lives, I am going to rename him DieHard (my son finally named him Bubbles, 4 months after we got the fish!) and I am taking out those little rocks and putting back the larger ones I had. I took photo's of him last night, but none of them came out too well being it was night.

Water temp? I searched the net and I think his water temp should had been fine. It was cooler during the winter but we hadn't turned our air on and it had been a bit warm in the house. Maybe he also prefers cooler water?

OK, the fish is back to same mouth behavior, but no spasm's. he is swimming normally but is spending alot of time at the top of the water with his head partly out. Very odd. I thought this morning he was looking and acting better, but may be he's not

Not sure if I uploaded these right. I noticed white dots on the top of it's head goig back to it's gills

The "White Dots" are the Bullhead's lateral line. Nothing to worry about at all.
I would recommend housing this fish on a sand substrate if he survives, and begin teaching him to eat at the top of the tank. This can be accomplished quite easily and will eliminate the possibility of him ingesting any of his substrate.
Also what do you mean by "good for all three" with your water parameters. Exact results please? What kind of a test kit are you using? Is he hanging at the top of the water or is his head actually out?
Bullheads are extremely tough fish so something sounds like it is very wrong in this situation.

I think this fish is sick- not only does it now have white dots all around it's head that wasn't there last night, it's mouth is also white. the feelers seem to be dying off too, the ones on the top of the head, one is thick near the head but as it goes up, it's hair thin. the ones under the mouth, the ends are gray and look dead.
I don't think there's anything I can do to make him not sick. Other than him swallowing a stone, it's hard to say why he'd be sick.
Thanks everyone for the help- where did any of you get your bull heads? We got this on accident in live bait. I was wondering where I could find another one in case this one doesn't make it?

Thanks everyone for the help- the bull head did die Friday morning. it was completely sad.

where did any of you get your bull heads? We got this on accident in live bait. I was wondering where I could find another one?

Thanks everyone for the help- the bull head did die Friday morning. it was completely sad.

where did any of you get your bull heads? We got this on accident in live bait. I was wondering where I could find another one?

Sorry to hear that your bullhead didn't make it.
I caught one from the Minnesota River in a minnow trap that I got at walmart. They are in most of the lakes and rivers in Minnesota. I have been able to catch them easily on hook and line fishing in warm shallow weedy areas of lakes using nightcrawlers as bait. If you want to go the hook and line route to catch one you may want to use something called a circle hook, or at least de-barb the hook you use. I have noticed that bullheads wind up swallowing the hook a little more often than other fish, at least in my experience. Circle hooks are supposed to be designed so that they will not gut-hook a fish.

Sorry to hear that your bullhead didn't make it.
I caught one from the Minnesota River in a minnow trap that I got at walmart. They are in most of the lakes and rivers in Minnesota. I have been able to catch them easily on hook and line fishing in warm shallow weedy areas of lakes using nightcrawlers as bait. If you want to go the hook and line route to catch one you may want to use something called a circle hook, or at least de-barb the hook you use. I have noticed that bullheads wind up swallowing the hook a little more often than other fish, at least in my experience. Circle hooks are supposed to be designed so that they will not gut-hook a fish.

I also live in MN- and I have many childhood memories of bullheads I never gave one much looking at to think they were cool until we had this one. I might try the minnow trap, we live right near a lake I could walk there if I wasn't so lazy! the lake by my mom is full of bullheads. me being a mom, fishing is not for me other than I could eat fish every day but when hubby came home from Mille Lacs with his catch while this fish was sick, the thought of eating fish was gross. so hooking a bullhead is out.

I also thought I'd call a bait store, see if they ever come across one since that's where thisone came from. I wondered if that's where people get their bullheads, from catching them?

bullheads are common in ghost shrimp shipments, and fat head minnow shipments to petshops.

I would contact your local LFS and inquire as to when they get shipments in.

Ive had this yellow bullhead since april 07 He was a 1/4in when I caught him, and hes about 3in now, bullheads are tough as nails I let my brother take care of him for 6months and went to check on it and discovered he had been fed bacon and freid chicken! He said he had turned the fish pump off a few months ago.. It made me mad that my fish had been living in stagnant murky water eating left overs, but he dubbled in size during the time! How fast will a yellow bullhead grow? he reached 3in his first year

hi
I have a few more questions. we upgraded to a 20 gal. tank and Mr. Bull seems very happy there. we also went to smaller gravel and he seems to have ahard time finding food and tries to eat the gravel and spits it out- is that common? I threw back in those larger rocks we had and he seems to find his food right away as he did before we moved him to this tank. he also does this off huge open mouth thing here and there, almost looks like a yawn- is that common? last night he started doing an even odder thing. he goes to the rocks as if to eat but does this funy slide thing, it lookd like he's scratching his side? is that common?

the new tank also has a better filter and the tank is not at all as cloudy as the smaller tank was. now to keep Mr. Bull a happy fish, am I suppose to vacuum the rocks? do I ever clean the whole darn tank?

About Vacuuming and Cleaning:

From your previous posts, I see that you do a lot of vacuuming or that you do it regularly.
Try this. Seriously. Get yourself a mid to large sized crawfish, or several small ones, or mix it up.
Crawfish will sift through all of your gravel, eating any and all decomposing biological waste. A larger craw can get down to the bottom and move each piece of gravel in your tank in its search for food. My big craw creates one big mound of gravel or digs a crater in the middle of the tank. She cleans so well that my gravel changes appearance like sand dunes in the wind. Crawfish use all 10 of their legs to forage. I have observed that they primarily use their little legs (the other 8 behind the two front claws) to probe and extract things from down in the gravel. Each of these rear appendages has its own little pincher that is useful for picking up very tiny particles. They are almost robot-like when foraging through the gravel. It is like an automated process and they are very methodical when doing it. They do a first-rate job cleaning the settled-out waste in your rocks. I see them as vacuum cleaners and that is a fair analogy.

One established decent sized craw will eliminate the act of vacuuming altogether for you. They do it without disturbing the whole tank and without kicking up finer sediments into the water. Your water will stay cleaner too. I actually never clean the gravel/rocks in my 30 or 60 gallon tanks anymore. Never.

The only thing that I do is partial water changes (almost always with fresh rainwater ) Rainwater is like miracle water for any aquarium, as long as it is collected from a normally dry spot that will fill up during a heavy downpour or another sanitary spot that does not contain aquatic algae, etc.. Rainwater has turned sick, disgusting, cloudy, smelly, failed tanks that seemed hopeless into low-maintenance established ecosystems. If you are in a large city with industry, let it sit for a few days and add some tap conditioner before putting it in your tank.

One good craw = Less fine sediment suspended in your water; less work for your filtration system; a cleaner, healthier, more natural tank that can become truly established;
less stress for everything in your tank because you won't be sticking your arms and your vacuum tube in there kicking everything up all at once - from a fish's perspective, vacuuming can be a violent and intrusive event; QUICK consumption of any uneaten food, dead feeder fish, or any other fish that may die - dead fish and decomposing food produce harmful nitrogen compounds, ammonia, and other bad stuff.


Please understand this if you do try craws: They will eat anything. They eat live plants, sick or injured fish, healthy fish (if they get lucky enough to snare one), and each other sometimes. Yung ones are more aggressive in general, but each one will have its own mannerisms. If your catfish is healthy, you don't need to worry about it getting eaten by a crawfish. Craws also like to explore and will march right up your aerator tube, follow it out of the water, and fall onto the floor. They are escape artists and are strong enough to push a lid open if they have good enough "footing." When that happens, they start their search for water and will walk all over the place - they generally follow the perimeter of a room along the walls, so I usually can locate them without much searching. I do not have a lid on my 30 gal hex (never did), so many have escaped the tank only to be found under a couch or behind something all covered in dust. They can survive overnight w/o water and they usually make their great escapes at night. A quick rinse will liven it up before you return it to the tank. They are tougher than nails.

Catfish love to eat craws, so that is why I recommended a single mid-large sized one. They can live for 6+ years. While young and growing, they molt their shells regularly. This renders them temporarily vulnerable and helpless because their bodies are truly soft. The carapace of a molted craw can literally collapse in on itself if taken out of the water. Get your craw it's own hiding place. They love to have their own little spot. In my case, my big mama craw took in roommates - a pair of spotted South American catfish that were smaller than her big claw.

Older and bigger craws are calmer. They take on a less aggressive or even a passive attitude. My big one only molts 1-2 times a year, whereas my little ones in another tank molt every 2 weeks! When my big one molts, she takes special care to hide really well. I just find a big discarded exoskeleton that at a glance appears to be my dead pet. A few days later, your craw will reappear with a fresh, vibrant, more colorful look. Any missing limbs will have started to regenerate. They even eat their old shells! Feed them sinking pellets as a staple food.

All in all, Procambarus clarkii (red swamp crawfish) or Procambarus acutus (white river crawfish) will not give you any trouble. They are fascinating to watch and are very beneficial to any freshwater tank. Cleaning my gravel used to be a huge pain - and it needed doing. Now, that job is for the decapods.

This tank may not look like much, but it is a very well established healthy aquarium. I raise all sorts of native fish in there with consistent success. Every fish in there comes in as a tiny little baby and leaves as a fat, happy, and healthy young adult. Then they go into our vacant pond (picture below). I have some less-than impressive pics of one of my older craws taken while it was taking a walk around the tank.
That little bass turned into a fat hog with a swollen belly and a big appetite for lizards.

BTW, in our crawfish ponds during the summer, we get these black masses of baby fish. They are bullheads that hatch from previously dry cracked mud and they form a super-dense tight ball. There must be a thousand or so little cats in each mass. I tried to keep some in my tanks on two separate occasions: the first time, my oscar devoured all 5 babies, spiny fins and all. the second time, I had a little bigger one but the resident largemouth bass at the time decided to gulp it up too, sharp fins and all (he did appear to have some major discomfort swallowing it and it took him the better part of a day, but he eventually got it down).

So far I am 0/0 on native cats in general. Maybe I should try a little bigger one.