Interesting you should mention the food types, he doesn’t seem to like any thing that is frozen and processed, ie. talapia fillets, which is what I mostly feed my fish cause it’s what is available to me locally. I do go to the coast of Texas a couple times a year and when I go I load up on mullet because it’s free, and the Wels absolutely loves them. Seems like he enjoys whole fish, I just wish I could find something locally that sells them at a reasonable price.Aswednesday13 reported, and I concur, wels are not psychologically stable and robust fish, it seems. Any change, any stress, any significant event in their tank / pond, sends them sulking for long times, even such an innocent change as changing one species of frozen-fortified fish for another, say mullet for a mackerel.
Mine too goes on frequent fasts, sometimes days, sometimes weeks, rarely 1-2 months, mind you, he is clearly the alpha of his 25K, no one messes with him. I think in your pond, him not being the alpha at all and with so many rivals, it can be explainable that his appetite is relatively lower, but I can't say it is lower than average on the absolute scale, perhaps mine is still managing to feed more than average, who knows?
Wels catfish, albino, ~10"
- Thread starter thebiggerthebetter
- Start date
We buy wholesale from local fishing bait vendors - Bionic Bait and Aylesworth's Bait and Tackle, at $0.5 to $2 per pound. We only feed the wels whole fish, nothing's removed, only Vitamins and minerals added via presoak.
Man that I wish I could get fish that cheap, I would be able to feed more often. I need to do some research and see if I can find something similar. Being several hours from the coast, Its going to be harder to come by.
Interestingly, mine isn't like this at all. Going through some algae issues in there and have a net in the pond quite a lot. The Wels doesn't seem to care and hasn't skipped a feeding, either.As
Mine too goes on frequent fasts, sometimes days, sometimes weeks, rarely 1-2 months, mind you, he is clearly the alpha of his 25K, no one messes with him. I think in your pond, him not being the alpha at all and with so many rivals, it can be explainable that his appetite is relatively lower, but I can't say it is lower than average on the absolute scale, perhaps mine is still managing to feed more than average, who knows?
Maybe size has something to do with it? Mine has definitely gotten bolder as it has gotten bigger, but it is still quite small compared to the other fish it is housed with. How large is your wels?
Quite small still, approaching 30" now. It might be that it's in a big pond by itself and doesn't have other fish disturbing or intimidating it.
Interesting and valuable info from YT peer from the UK:
Busta-mb8kw: Albinos are not like a normal wels, there well known for bein less aggressive and predatory than the normal ones.
TBTB: Intriguing. Thank you. I've never heard of this. What can you provide to substantiate your statement, please? I'd love to learn more about this.
Busta-mb8kw: when wels get to about 6” long they become bossy and beat each other up, ive got 9 and once about 5-6” long had to separate them.
TBTB: Intriguing. How do you keep 9 wels catfish? Yes, ours started fighting too around that size mark and yes, had to be separated too.
Busta-mb8kw: i catch them as babys in the uk, we fish for them here, hard to get albinos though, yours is stunning
TBTB: Cool. Aren't they banned in the UK and you must kill them on landing? I believe ours is from a farm. ... Could you tell me more please on the reduced predation / aggression of the albino wels? Where you learned this? How much do you trust this?
Busta-mb8kw: they are not banned they live in a lot of uk lakes but you have to have a license as they are classed as a invasive species, because i fish for them im on a lot of the Facebook groups to do with wels fishing and some breeders/keepers are on the pages to, a lot of them report keeping them with other fish and see a lot less predation than being kept with a regular wels, someone i know has 4 kept like yours in a big pond and they rarely touch the other fish yet the normal wels in his last pond basically cleared it out, I've heard they are farming them in turkey as well now but in the uk we only fish for them and always released, there in our river systems to but not like the river Ebro.
Busta-mb8kw: Albinos are not like a normal wels, there well known for bein less aggressive and predatory than the normal ones.
TBTB: Intriguing. Thank you. I've never heard of this. What can you provide to substantiate your statement, please? I'd love to learn more about this.
Busta-mb8kw: when wels get to about 6” long they become bossy and beat each other up, ive got 9 and once about 5-6” long had to separate them.
TBTB: Intriguing. How do you keep 9 wels catfish? Yes, ours started fighting too around that size mark and yes, had to be separated too.
Busta-mb8kw: i catch them as babys in the uk, we fish for them here, hard to get albinos though, yours is stunning
TBTB: Cool. Aren't they banned in the UK and you must kill them on landing? I believe ours is from a farm. ... Could you tell me more please on the reduced predation / aggression of the albino wels? Where you learned this? How much do you trust this?
Busta-mb8kw: they are not banned they live in a lot of uk lakes but you have to have a license as they are classed as a invasive species, because i fish for them im on a lot of the Facebook groups to do with wels fishing and some breeders/keepers are on the pages to, a lot of them report keeping them with other fish and see a lot less predation than being kept with a regular wels, someone i know has 4 kept like yours in a big pond and they rarely touch the other fish yet the normal wels in his last pond basically cleared it out, I've heard they are farming them in turkey as well now but in the uk we only fish for them and always released, there in our river systems to but not like the river Ebro.
With all due respect to the YouTube commenter I would classify that as purely anecdotal and not substantiated whatsoever. There's no biological reason for albinos to be more peaceful. Besides, if we're gonna use anecdotal evidence - when mine started fighting the albino would go at it at least as hard as the natural morph.
I have taken out the cover areas where my Wels used hide, and now he has gotten more aggressive when it’s time to feed. Also found that he doesn’t have much interest in anything other than whole fish, any kind of filleted fish or pellets he won’t go for. The other night he ate 5 or 6 sardines, around 6-7.” He was even battling the Pima and the Gator gar for them, which is very brave.
Don’t really understand why some fish prefer certain food. Only the Gar,Pima, wels and ripsaw have any interest in the fish from the ocean, none of my other fish like them.
Don’t really understand why some fish prefer certain food. Only the Gar,Pima, wels and ripsaw have any interest in the fish from the ocean, none of my other fish like them.
