We are o-fish-ally a fish farm

A Catfish farm to be precise.   Our Pond Management Consultant had told us once we should try raising catfish in some of the side ponds, they are the perfect size for such an operation.  So just before Thanksgiving we drove to the hatchery and picked up about 550+ baby catfish, well junior catfish.  They are all around 6 inches long and look like real catfish, complete with whiskers.  There was also about 3 albino catfish thrown in.  Freebies.  I guess albino catfish are undesirable because those that hunt catfish find them easy to hunt.  But since the hatchery was going to just toss them away we said we would take them.  At least give them a chance at living, at least until we eat them.


So, how does one transport so many fish? Box them up and toss them into the back of the farm vehicle, for us that would be a Scion xB.

The fish are actually in large plastic bags, which in turn are placed into a box, one bag per box.  This is more to keep them stable, wouldn't want the bags of fish to roll around while we drive.


Once back home on the farm the bags are placed into the pond to allow them to acclimate, just like one does with a home aquarium.

After a short period of time we cut them loose.

You can see one of the albino fish in this bag:

So how does one farm fish?  Well we can just leave them alone for a couple of years and then fish them out.  Or we can feed them which will cause them to grow faster and fatter, and then we can fish them out.  We will probably feed them. We will also place breeding containers in the pond for them so they can mix it up a bit and make kittens.   The breeding containers consist of 5 gallon plastic containers (like you get at Home Depot) submerged into bottom such that there is a 5 inch opening for the fish.

We have other catfish already in the pond, but not the same variety.  The new ones are Channel Catfish.  Here is one of the old ones, from the lake area.