PlanetCatfish.com

Hi all, I currently have a 7 inch channel catfish in a 7 foot x 2.5 foot x 2.5 foot tank. I've had him about 10 months and during this time he has been kept at about 23-24 degrees Celsius. I have a friend who has a fairly large extremely well filtered pond 15 foot x 9 foot x 4 foot deep. My question is could the fish go from being kept in tropical water to the cold water pond (i would acclimatise him over several days, probably a week). Also if this is possible, would the fish need to be brought indoors for winter or could he survive a British winter in a 4 foot deep pond? Thanks in advance.

I've tried that with koi, going from 70 F (indoor tank) to ~42 F (outdoor pond in Nov) lowering the temp over 2 weeks. Didn't work. They died soon thereafter. Channels are tougher but really IDK.

Channels survive USA/Canada winters just fine. In captivity, just make sure to keep a hole open in the ice. 4' is deep enough to keep it from freezing all the way to the bottom. Stop feeding when water temp drops below 50 F.

Koi are said to be rather sensitive to temperature changes. Don't knwo wheterh this is true, but Koi people say so.

Putting the cat into the pond in summer - when the temperatures are almost equal would help a lot: it would have a few months to forget the too warm winters it has been exposed to

Thanks for the advice, I will put him in over summer so its not too much of a shock. Thanks again

Completely forgot about this case: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... it=channel

It is about the ID but I mention how I transferred my two 2' channels (it is the opposite to what your question is about - from cold water to warm water): "Hi all, a week ago I pumped out 90% of my 12,000 gal outside pond to net out two channel cats that (apparently) have been eating some of our koi. I've put them there year earlier thinking that they are too slow to catch koi and will just eat the pellets we threw in there. I am afraid that was a big and expensive mistake. Anyway, they are now in my indoor 2500 gal tropical pond in the basement. I snapped some pics when transitioning them from 45 F water into 77 F water over the course of the whole day - still, of course, very stressful for them but I believe they are adjusting now ok. Originaly, my better half and I caught them at a local decorative fish farm..."

They survived the experience just fine, having not succumbed to any illness or problems.