# channel cats....



## Hardtop (Nov 24, 2004)

wondering if anyone has had experience "raising" channel cats for food in a typical farm pond and found a way to keep the "mud" taste out of them. The ones I catch "wild" have a definate taste that is not present in farm raised catfish. I have wondered if I could make a floating pen that would keep them off the bottom and feed them comercial food....? Would they survive, and grow without being able to forage....? Thanks for any info, HT


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

I can&#8217;t say I&#8217;ve ever eaten a catfish that tasted like mud. They don&#8217;t eat mud, they eat fish, crustaceans, and other aquatic life. The water they live in is the primary thing that would affect meat quality. Pond fish are much &#8220;cleaner&#8221; looking than those caught from muddy lake bays or creeks. You could just stock the pond and feed them without worrying about the pen. As long as the water is clean, they&#8217;ll be clean.
Ironically, my grandpa built a cage for that exact reason, 20 years ago. We never got around to trying it, but I still have it. My plan is to raise goldfish in it, but I haven&#8217;t gotten around to that yet either.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

You can sure feed them commercial fish food.

We had no idea what was in the pond at the house when we purchased 4 years ago.

Found out that there were 35-40 channels in the 4-7 lb range. 

Started feeding the bluegill and the cats were overwhelming with their aggressive feeding on the fish food. Ended up removing all but 6-7 as of now and 5 of those are on the removal target list for this year. They are now in the 7-12 lb range and just not what I want to have in the pond. I will leave a couple just to see how big they can get. 

It is very easy to do a head count they are there every night when we feed.

Haven't eaten any of them so I don't know about the taste but we have a bottom organic muck layer in the pond from the decaying leaves over the years and these cats are dark black.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Certain types of algae and bacteria are often the cause of off tastes in fish. Feeding the ideal feed in cage fish can still result in off flavored fish if these are present.


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## FISNFOOL (May 12, 2009)

Google Aquaponics. I converted an industrial tote into a tank. The method uses the fish waste to feed vegetable plants planted into the gravel filter you make for the tank top.

You grow your own fish and veggies with one setup.


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