Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Nice catch Hydrophilia, you surely didn't catch them with your bare hands though?

hydrophilia, good catch.

There are lots of good catfish recipes on this website, enjoy...
http://www.uscatfish.com/recipes.html

Well...yes....I dive for abalone in 10degC (50degF) ocean water here, so have nice neoprene gloves and wetsuit. I used a net in a frame to push them out of the cave and pen them into the end of the tank, then slowly cornered and caught them by hand. I need a big net!

Nice!

Results:

Before catfish removal we had an average of 1 dead trout per day with no more than 48 hrs between discoveries. There was also a persistent low ammonia level (<.25ppm).

After three nights without catfish there have been zero dead trout discovered and ammonia is down to zero.

I'd say that is strong evidence against keeping trout and cats in the same tank. As I mentioned, this could also be the cause of the tilapia deaths last October, so, despite the higher production levels I've read about in mixed tilapia/catfish production ponds, they are probably not suitable companions in AP tanks.

I'll report if trout deaths resume, but I think the way to keep trout and catfish in the same system is, as suggested, in separate tanks or cages. It may be that catfish become more predatory when they grow larger...

Think it's probably a factor of relative size of the fish... catfish have "big mouths"...