Catfish Diet?

[SalmonAfrica]

Hey

I have a few species of related catfish - a Red-tailed catfish, RTCxTSN, Tiger shovelnose and a Perruno cat (or Marble sailfin, I'm having a hard time with the ID).

Anyway, I wanted to get some good growth on them, because at the moment I have them on sinking pellets and sardine meat, and occasionally (once every two or three months) they get treated with some chicken liver.
With this food they're growing, but not as fast as I've heard that they normally do.

Is there anything else I'm leaving out of their diet? Will live feeder fish help? And how often should I be feeding these different foods?

Thanks in advance
SA

 

[krichardson]

What kind of feeder fish do you have access to?Some advise against using goldfish as feeders for various reasons but I've used them after they were treated for parasites and fattened up on flake food.You could try raw shrimp from the market and cut up tilapia or other freshwater fish.

 

[2songbirds]

I've had some good success with my achara x tsn (achara common name as well for marble pim, and gets used for perrunno altho not a true one) eating just thawed shrimp. Got him about a month ago, and grew 4 inches so far.

My achara catfish eats whatever...frozen shrimp (lots) and sinking tablets. I got him at 8" and is now 27"+

My rtc x tsn eats the shrimp too, but hasn't grown very much

In my personal experience, the achara grows a lot quicker than tsn (had those in the past too), so you shouldn't have any problem fattening him up

As for feeders, I've never done them with these fish. I know from my past experiences once I started feeders, couldn't go back to commercial

 

[jprp]

feed as much variety as you can mussel,prawn ,fillets of fresh and salt water fish,whole fish,squid,cockle, earth worms.
+ big weekly water changes.

 

[SalmonAfrica]

Thanks for the replies.

I have most kinds of the 'regular' feeders avaliable, like platies, swordtails, minnows, guppies and goldfish. I've also heard that using feeder fish can cause some problems, which is why I asked here first. Maybe it won't be such a good idea, as I don't want to have the hooked onto feeders...

I'll be sure to try out the shrimp though - it's usually pretty cheap and I don't see why they wouldn't eat it. I'll also keep an eye out for whatever frozen freshwater fish are avaliable.

As for water changes, it's easy enough to do the weekly water change, but how much water is taken out each week? I've heard that 50% water change should be some of the largest water changes that you do, is up to 75% okay or is this too much?

Thanks again
SA

 

[krichardson]

I do 50% weekly.

 

[flyin lizard]

Feed mine shrimp,tilapia,smelt, scallopes, squid all from the frozen food section at the grocery store and earthworms during the summer when I can get them. Also 50% water change every week in a 700 gallon indoor pond.

 

[devder1]

i feel that up to 90% is safe as long as you dont have really fragile fish

 

[joshuad1127]

my tiger shovel nose eats silversides i do not know wat else to feed him that is all he eats

 

[coolwil30]

i feed my red tail and rtc x shovelnose tilapia and shrimp that you buy from the grocery store. its cheaper and better since its for human consumption. i havent had my red tail a year yet and he's already 18 inches.