Raising Catfish in a barrel!! 11-03-2011 UPDATE!!

[knjinnm]

Quote:
As someone mentioned plants will need light, BTW what kind of plants are you planning to grow?
Adding CO2 with the stocking levels you plan may cause an algae bloom which will require more water turnover. You will also need supplemental air, the depth of the 55 gallon drum will require a powerful air pump and large air-stone, the air has to come from the bottom to keep the waste from layering on the bottom.
Can you post some pic's of your set up?

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/pond-supplies/pr/c/5163

WOW! you are like the strongest critic I have yet to come across.

I'm not critical, actually I want you to succeed but I want you to be aware of the pitfalls of trying to raise catfish in a 55 gallon/48" tall barrel. As you surmised I raise/keep tropical fish (75-80 degree) and breeding in 10/15/20 gallon tanks is easier than 55gallon "upright" drums. Your challenge will be keeping the water fresh and clean. To grow quickly, fish need a lot of clean water, a lot!
Catfish are more tolerant than tropical fish but the amount of food they need can outstrip the amount of water a 55/48" tall 55 gallon drum is capable of providing unless you can add a "whole lot" of clean water.

Take the same 55 Gallons and spread it out over an area of (48in X 24 X 12)/231 ='s 60 gallons with the same water turn over and you have a much greater surface area capable of supporting the stocking levels you are proposing. Surface area is the key to exchangeing ammonia/nitrate/nitrite waste + adding air/oxygen to the water to increasing your success rate.

More later ... and looking forward to your success.
Joe

 

[Maryallison]

Good luck! My husband is planning to do the exact same thing soon. Not sure where he heard about it, but sounds like you guys are doing the same thing.

 

[treldib]

I say 40x 8" Channel Cats in an upright 55G Barrel is a really bad idea....

Good Luck. Subscribed.

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
It will work but it takes a lot of fresh water changes.
My suggestion would be a minimum 100 gallon stock/trough tank with a constant flow of fresh water, plenty of food.

Imagine trying to raise 40 cornishX's in a 12X12 pen with no air exchange! You'd be shoveling poop hourly and keeping ventilation fans operating. It's the same with catfish. Constant poop removal and aeration.

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
You are pretty quiet for someone with experience

 

[dkosh]

I am very supportive of your venture. We use to raise tropical and salt water fish in a 150 gal and a 130 gal tanks. When moved back to the family farm 5 years ago we never set them back up (no space

). So I'm thinking...if this works for you...what's one more project for us.

 

[patandchickens]

Can I make an important practical suggestion here, as a sometime recreational aquarist and PhD aquatic biologist (although, while I have worked around aquaculture people, I am definitely not one myself):

LOSE THE PLANTS from your plan. Seriously, seriously, seriously. Two big reasons:

First reason : your big problem in having a super high stocking density in a deep narrow container is going to be oxygen. Plants will not provide meaningful oxygen, they will ROB oxygen from the fish (both at night and when their dead bits decay). If they are free-in-the-water or just-under-the-surface type plants (which is the only kind you're likely to have enuf light for) they will also reduce oxygen concentrations in the lower water where the catfish are by reducing water circulation between surface and deeper layers.

Second reason: the catfish are likely to just eat them anyhow, especially if these are benthic plants you are planning on, and/or insufficiently lit. So it would be a waste of time and water-pollution to buy and add them, and you *certainly* would not want to be intentionally adding CO2 to the system in the vain hope of helping doomed plants (since the extra c02 is not good for the fish)

Trying to have high-density container aquaculture grow its own food WITHIN THE CONTAINER is just hopeless, it's like putting twenty CornishX broilers into a 5x5 pen and expecting that pen to grow grass to feed them

Beyond that, add me to the list of people concerned about oxygen levels. If you do a full water exchange per 24 hours it might be enough to keep water chemistry acceptable, at least while the fish are still small, but from knowing what professional aquaculture folks do and DON'T do, I am a bit skeptical about it at a gut level. You will definitely want to keep a close eye on it and have a read-to-hand Plan B available. And keep the whole thing cool... I know they grow a bit slower in cooler water but oxygn will be much less problem.

Actually, if you want one other piece of free advice, not so much from an aquaculture perspective but from a farming perspective in general:

If you have not grown a particular kind of stock in a particular kind of condition before, it is usually a baaaaaad idea to start out with high stocking density. It maximizes the chance of problems arising, and maximizes the SIZE and unsolvable-ness of those problems if they DO arise.

If it were me, trying to raise some food fish in a barrel (which is btw a really, really BAD type of container for it, try to scrounge around for something better for future use?) I would be picking a very LOW stocking density, like maybe just one or two fish per square foot, and do a round of that, then scale up somewhat, and GRADUALLY see how high you can go without hitting the failure point. If you start high-stocked, it is pretty likely to go badly without you actually being able to LEARN much from it.

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[gmendoza]

For everyone:

This "Raising catfish in a barrel" is a test and trial for me. I WANT TO AND WILL DO IT. I accept the pittfalls and responsibility since I am doing it and its my money invoved. I dont have to clarify this since I am my own person,I can do what I want. If I fail, I blame myself and learn for next time.Thats what learning is all about.

I have seen others attempts at trying this.Most have failed,but where they failed I taken into account of some factors:

Direct heat:

They had their setup outside and overheated their tanks enough to kill their fish.

My tank is indoors in my empty shower.

Oxygen:

They had either electrical pumps.no pumps,or solar pumps for oxygen.

Mine has a drip system which changes the water at 2.1gphx24hrs = 50.4 per 24 hours = 100% clean and oxygenized. No electrical,no solar,no taking out 15 gallons per day to clean tank.

Update; the plants are not comming in due to clarical error. dismantled the co2 diffuser.

I am not going to buy an expensive pump,declorinator,airator or any such things that anyone else didnt have.Therefore, I am proceeding this with or without anyones approval.It is mine and I will do with as I wish.

New update: On Jan 24, at 11:30 am I was notified by Dunns fish farm that they dont ship fish.They will be out at a specified location late this spring. I have put on Heiatus my catfish in a barrel.

 

[taraann81]

Take a deep breath...
For the most part people are offering you well meaning advice. Perhaps mentioning things to ensure you have taken it in to account. People are intrigued by the idea/process. Some mention the pitfalls and how they suspect it will turn out, others offer helpful advice. what did you expect from posting this thread?

Myself, and I am sure most others, are hoping you succeed. Calm down, there is no need to rant and freak out. Nobody is offering their approval or disapproval in an attempt to unconvince you to try it, to be honest nobody cares that much.

Helpful advice was given now plough ahead, if no advice was sought maybe you should put a clause in your first post.

"Those who wish to post must follow these rules.

1- Do not offer advice
2- Do not mention anything that could go wrong
3-Only people who wish to post positives need post.

Good luck to you, I hope you succeed and hope you learn to take suggestions a little more eloquently.

ETA
I see you have edited out your last paragraph, I suppose my response now seems out of place.

 

[patandchickens]

Continual-flow style water exchange will not keep your water 100% pure and 100% oxygenated. (Well, not at a 1-exchange-per-day rate it won't). It will just make it better than it was otherwise. So it may *or may not* be adequate to your purposes.

Trying a lower stocking density would be a wise move...

(edited to add: if this will be standing in your shower stall, please do some math and load-capacity checking unless the shower is direclty on a poured slab. A barrel full o water is HEAVVVVY, and you do not want it to crack your shower stall floor or (worse) damage the floor joists and plumbing beneath!)

Pat