Catfish
		Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) have the species name of punctatus because of the dark lateral spots on their body (punctatus = spotted).  Adults eventually lose these spots especially during breeding season (late spring, early summer) and take on a blueish color.  They can often be confused with their cousin the Blue Catfish (Ictalurus furcatus).  The species name furcatus means forked because Blue Catfish have a deeply forked caudal fin. Catfish are cavity spawners (a hole, burrow or submerged log) and typically won’t successfully spawn in recreational ponds. They lay large masses of eggs that are
	“glued” together until they hatch 5- 10 days after fertilization.  Catfish have been widely introduced across the United States and are cultured as a foodfish primarily in the Southeastern US.  They eat about anything (insects, crayfish, mollusks and other fish) and are commonly stocked into recreational ponds.    Catfish can be a great addition to a small pond because they are easy to catch, readily eat feed and grow quickly to very large sizes.  They are inexpensive to stock and catfish fisheries are easy and economical to establish.  The problem with catfish is that they grow too well.  They get so big that they eat everything in your pond.  No forage fish are safe from a large catfish.  Usually they are overstocked so the pond becomes dominated by large catfish and trying to have a bream or bass fishery is out of the question.  We have seen ponds so overstocked that it was impossible to feed the fish enough feed to get them up to a one pound size.  We recommend that you either designate a small pond to be your catfish pond or stock your bass/bream pond so lightly with catfish that you are able to harvest most of them before they become “monsters”.