Channel catfish, blue cat, forked tail cat, willow cat, spotted cat

Natural range is fresh waters of U.S. west of Appalachians   to New Mexico and from north Mexico to southern Canada. Introduced throughout the U.S. Cultured mainly in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Occurs naturally in 15 -150 cm depth waters at 20 - 23^oC in April-July. Male builds nest, defends and fans eggs. Hatching in 5 - 10 days.  Mature in 2-8 years at 27 - 40 cm

In captivity, spawns in large can, barrel or spawning boxes placed in ponds or pens or by hypophysation. Fecundity is 8,800eggs/kg body weight. Higher production possible with artificial hatching using troughs with running water and paddle agitators. Hatching in 5 - 10 days. Maturity possible in 18 months depending on feeding regime, growth rate and final size attained.

Natural
Omnivorous: zooplankton, fish, insects, bottom arthropods, molluscs and water plants.

Artificial
2 - 5% body weight/day, 6 days a week with pelleted, floating or sinking  35% crude protein feed.. More nutritionally complete feed required for more intense forms of culture. In winter, 1 -2% body weight/day. Feed conversion of 1.3 - 2  attainable

Most widely cultured Ictalurid in U.S. Adapts well to artificial feed, is resistant to crowding, grows rapidly to optimal market size of 0.45 kg, but has nervous temperament. Rearing ponds can range from 0.4 to 40 ha with depth of above a meter for south U.S. A problem is off flavor originating from blue green algae, actinomycetes influenced by over feeding. Treatment : place fish in clear water for 1- 2 weeks.

Static ponds without feeding. Stock 1,235 fingerlings/ha, begin fertilization by February in Alabama with 133 kg/ha of NPK ( 8 - 8 - 2).

Static pond monoculture. Stock 7,413 fingerling / ha, grow to 500 g each in 200 days using 35% protein feed not exceeding 39kg/ha/day.

Polyculture. Stock catfish 7,200/ha, tilapia 625/ha, silver carp 250/ha, yields 5,333 kg/ha.

Cage culture.  Stock 500/m³ cage, floating feed, 1.34 feed conversion, yield 191 kg/m³, but high mortality from low dissolved oxygen and bacterial diseases.

Intensive production. Aeration and  recirculation, feed up to 450 kg/ha/day. Yields 22,400 kg/ha in 128 days, feed conversion 1.5.

Raceway culture. In Arkansas, ponds 25-30m x 3m, water pumped at 2,800 l/min, stock 2,000 fingerlings, yields 40,000 kg/ha in 150 days.

For more information especially on the present status of channel catfish industry in the U.S. please refer to "History Status and Future of Aquaculture in the United States", http://www.tcru.ttu.edu/tcru//kc/pubs/parker/p20aquaticsciences/aquaticssciences.htm

However it is a well known fact that the channel catfish aquaculture industry is well established in the U.S. with all aspects of its biology, nutrition, disease and culture well perfected with fine-tuning in progress. This valuable technology can  be tapped or  transferred  to Malaysia or any other tropical country only when the channel catfish can be bred consistently, that is, successfully spawned in the tropical environment with a system to mass produce fingerling for culture.

In line with this, the Freshwater Fisheries Research Center (FFRC)  Berendam, Melaka, West Malaysia, did procure some channel catfish fingerlings  from Cuba three years ago to monitor their growth rate and simultaneously to study the gonadal development to determine if they do mature in the tropical environment. To facilitate this, fish were sacrificed at various time intervals depending on the size of the catfish as shown below.

Selected catfish being dissected to evaluate gonadal development

Males more than 2.5 kg had large testes with spermatozoa present

Once it was confirmed that the catfish have reached final maturation, potential breeders were selected and paired in concrete tanks. A large black plastic bin was placed in each tank as a spawning box. A selected female is as shown in the plate below.

A fully matured female

The spawned eggs were then collected and placed in troughs for hatching which occurred after 5 days. A sample of the hatching eggs is shown in the plate below.

A just hatched hatchling along with two eyed embryos waiting to be hatched.The other two eggs showed no signs of embryological development.

Finally the plate below shows an example of a free swimming hatchling awaiting to become the next generation Malaysian born channel catfish broodfish.

This first successful spawning   (on the June 26, 2001) of the channel catfish in a completely tropical environment was achieved by Dr. S. Pathmasothy who happens to have received his MSc from Auburn University, Alabama, USA and with help from a group committed workers.

It is true that one swallow does not make a summer but if our success continues as planned we may make channel catfish a major component of our expanding aquaculture industry. Who knows, one day when the distribution range of channel catfish is listed as in the synopsis  above, Malaysia may be included.