Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My system has been running for almost 3 years now, tried catfish in the beginning and they all died. Put in Tilapia and they did great till the cold weather killed them. Put bass in and they did awesome but are a PITA to feed. So I figured after all these years I would try catfish again. Put 100 in, and figured I would pull some out as the got big. Well about a month into it, all my little catfish died. All the water tests where fine. The catfish where eating good, then the weather got cold and the water temp dropped, the stopped feeding. Thought maybe they just needed to get used to the cold water, but they never started feeding again.

Any ideas are appreciated.

I haven't yet raised cats in the AP setup, but I know during the cold months wild cats stop feeding almost entirely until the water warms.

There are some diseases that cause problems for catfish at certain ages and/or when the temp is in a certain range. I've had problems with catfish as well, especially when they are young and the temp gets between 60 and 70 F. Above or below this and I barely have any losses. I suspect the chronic form of Enteric Septicemia of Catfish (ESC) which is common in the catfish industry.

http://en.wikivet.net/Edwardsiella_ictaluri

http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/documents/EntericSepticemiaofCatfish.pdf

This would also affect some other types of fish but I don't think bass and bluegill are affected.

There's a chronic and an acute form. Either way you should hold off on feeding the fish if you suspect an outbreak.

Thanks guys. I don't have to worry about feed they are all dead.

Tried to edit my post but took too long. I lost the better part of two batches of Catfish as well Helomech. I think they had ESC but they stopped eating or ate very little. Once they were infected they would sometimes act like they were in a stupor and drift right to the drain, then at other times they'd act normal till finally they died. I had two survivors from the first batch and three from the second. I think they probably are all carriers so I'll probably wind up getting rid of them anyway.

In the meantime I've lost 1 bluegill out of 40 in over more than a year so they aren't susceptible and it's my understanding that bass are related. From looking at the literature trout are likely to be susceptible.

Here's another general article on ESC that I meant to post in my edit - http://agrilifecdn.tamu.edu/fisheries/files/2013/09/SRAC-Publication-No.-477-ESC-Enteric-Septicemia-of-Catfish.pdf

Hope this helps

ESC is interesting thanks for the info Scotty.

Usually catfish are hard to kill. Had 2-3lb one survive a bucket that it could not even straiten out in and without aeration for a 3 hr car drive home fro ma lake. Dad had them warped in wet towels as a kid in the back of truck to clean when he got home. The one I had grown from a fingerling in my 50 gallon tank with the turtle died on me after just trying to get it out of the tank. It lived off the uneaten turtle food and table scraps.

Yeah, it's a pretty interesting disease. I suppose treating with anti-biotics might be one way to deal with it but it's probably not a good idea in AP. The organism (Edwardsiella ictaluri) is common enough even in nature, how could you keep it out when you're always having to buy in Catfish . Some fish don't show any signs that they have it and it's internal. Wouldn't surprise me if Edwardsiella could survive in a grow bed for an extended period since it's in the same group as E. coli. Edwardsiella tarda is a close relative, causes fish disease and is probably even more common.

Yeah, trying to stay away from antibiotics.

Small catfish won't survive the cold. When I got mine I kept them as fry in a heated aquarium overwintered then when summer arrived they were large enough to move to the main AP tank and lived through the next winter with no probs. Im surprised your supplier didn't mention this.

Hmm interesting , I think that depends on the catfish Charlie. Channel Catfish certainly do better at the higher temps but can live through some really cold conditions and are native in many of the same areas as the Bluegill.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/catfish/ictaluridae/channelcatfish.htm

I too lost my whole school of catfish fry in cold weather. About 15 Channnel Catfish to 2" long, they failed to thrive at about 50 degrees F/11 degrees C. They didn't eat, looked lethargic, and died over the course of 3 days last winter.
We replaced them later that spring at 60 degrees F and they're still going strong.

Sorry, I assumed tandanus catfish. Im not sure about channel catfish.

I caught some wild cats in a creek that was drying up, figured my geese would eat them, but no. The gander tried to kill them by draining the pool, I thought for sure theyd die that winter in just a few inches of water, but most survived. I now have them in a big hard side pool and the geese are gone. I haven't spent much on fish, I bought some feeder goldfish of which I've got like 7 left. My pool is now stocked with mostly wild caught minnows, cats, and the remaining goldfish. The fish are for looks and eating the crap that gets in the pool, not for me to eat, so the fact that they are bullhead cats isn't a big problem for me.