Eugene L. Torrans

Channel catfish egg masses are typically incubated in stationary wire mesh baskets suspended in metal troughs with flow-through water that is agitated and circulated between the baskets and around the eggs with rotating paddles. A limiting factor in the successful incubation of channel catfish egg masses is the absorption of oxygen by the developing embryos; low levels of dissolved oxygen in the water result in premature hatching and increased fry mortality. We modified and tested a vertical-lift incubator (the “See-Saw”) for incubating channel catfish egg masses. Both the See-Saw and...

The aquifer that supplies water to most channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) hatcheries in the Yazoo Basin of the Mississippi River flood plain in west-central Mississippi has a hardness of <10 mg/liter as CaCO3. Calcium hardness <10 mg/liter is known to reduce survival and growth of catfish sac and swim-up fry, but effects of low hardness on fingerling growth and survival have not been determined. We examined the effects of hardness (5 mg/liter and 67 mg/liter as CaCO3) on survival and growth of fingerling (2.0-3.2 g initial weight) channel catfish (USDA-103 line), blue catfish (I...

Bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus) in 1.6-ha commercial channel catfish ponds fed entirely on zooplankton did not use demand feeders. Catfish ponds with buffalo stocked at 14 to 125 fish/ha had an average zooplankton density of 14 ml/m3 , as compared to 57 mlIm3 in catfish monoculture ponds. At a stocking rate of 500 buffalo/ha, 681 kg/ha of buffalo were produced in addition to the catfish crop.