MCKP

Hello everyone. This is my first post on this forum. I am certainly glad I found this place. I have a question that I can't seem to find an answer to and really hope I can here!

My sister has 3 cat fish that were 'rescued' from a drying up river bed. They are tiny right now, about 5-6 inches. I have no idea what kind of cat fish they are(Eastern WA river) but she has kept them alive in a small fish tank over the winter. They eat fish food and meal worms, and real worms. She wants to give me one because she can't keep them. Her boyfriends mom has a very large pond but she will take no more then 2. So that leaves just the one. I am putting in a pond within the next month(already started on it) but I am not sure if it will be big enough for him. It is a roughly 75 gallon, two layered, pre formed pond.
I am well aware that he may get too big to be in there, but I have been told that the pond is fine for a koi, but they can get very big too...... I do have a resource that will take him if he outgrows my pond but they will not take him small.
I don't know, honestly, if the fish would survive if returned to the lake, because they were TINY when they were caught.

Now, again, because I want to make this clear, I did NOT catch these fish. I just want to make sure they stay alive.

So.... would he be okay in my pond


Thank you for any responses! I really appreciate it!

Oh, and he would be the only fish kept in the pond..

Amanda

It would be helpdul if you could post a pic.
And welcome to fishlore!

MCKP

A picture of the fish or of the pond??

The pond is not installed yet. We are still working on that. We do it on weekends and evenings and should have it finished in a couple of weeks....

The fish, I can get one but it will probably be a day or two. I don't have the fish here.

MeGustaUnaPez926

A picture of the fish. Then we could look at its features and see if we could identify it. I just did some quick google-ing and couldn't find anything with a list of catfish native to Washington, sorry.

agabr123

welcome

could you get a description of them until you can get pics?

gremlin

75 gallons really isn't big enough for koi. It would be ok for some goldfish, but koi get way too big. They need closer to several hundred to 1000 gallons.
Your catfish would probably be okay in the pond for a while. Depending on what kind it is, it may decide to eat any other fish you put in the pond with it unless they are much larger than the catfish. My guess would be a channel catfish, a blue catfish, or a flathead catfish. As for putting it back in the river, it would probably do fine, but I would contact the local wildlife office first. They may be willing to take them and raise them to be released like they do other farm-raised fish to stock the rivers, lakes, and streams for fishing.

aquarist48

I had my 155g tank stocked with creek fish, Bream, Red Breast, and a cat fish for about 2 years maybe 3. The cat fish grew to 18" in no time. I hand fed him 1 jumbo shrimp every day and worms. He might be fine in your pond for a while but he will out grow it more than likely. I think if you acclimated him back into a creek he would be fine. Good luck with the new pond.

MCKP

Here are some pics of him - just got him(or her - not sure how you tell) here today. He is right around 5 inches long.

Sorry about the logo in front of the one - don't want anybody to steal my images(not you, just most things I post on the net I put it on)

So - what kind of fish do I have? And how do I take care of him? What have I gotten myself into?!

Red1313

Relax, he looks pretty tiny right now so don't need to panic yet.
You may want to check out this site and see if it helps out or not. Sorry I can't help you more.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/