Researchers have answered many questions about blue catfish, including their population size in Virginia's tidal rivers, their rate of spread to new areas, and their growth rate. However, a crucial question remained unanswered until recently: how much do blue catfish consume daily? Let's delve into the dietary habits of catfish, exploring what they eat, how they feed, and how this knowledge can help anglers and pond owners alike.
Understanding Catfish Feeding Behavior
Catfish are opportunistic feeders, meaning they'll consume nearly anything they can find. This adaptability allows them to thrive in various environments. Here's how catfish find food, even in murky waters:
- Barbels: These whisker-like feelers are packed with taste buds and help catfish locate food by touch, taste, and smell.
- Keen sense of smell: Many catfish species can detect food from surprising distances, even in muddy waters.
- Nocturnal feeding patterns: While catfish are most active at night, they can be trained to feed during daylight hours in managed ponds.
Most catfish prefer searching along the pond floor for insects, decaying matter, or slow-moving prey. However, in ponds where feeding schedules are consistent, catfish also eat at or near the surface, especially if you're using floating pellets. Some species, like the flathead catfish, are active predators that chase down live prey rather than scavenge.
Species-Specific Diets in Acreage Ponds
Different catfish species eat different things, and knowing what each one prefers helps you stock and feed your pond more effectively.
Channel Catfish
Channel catfish are one of the most common types of catfish. Channel catfish eat everything from aquatic insects, frogs, and small fish to plant matter, shrimp, and even chicken livers. These opportunistic omnivores will also accept floating feeds, making them easy to manage in both small and large ponds. They are flexible eaters that respond well to feeding schedules, especially in warmer water temperatures.
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Blue Catfish
Blue catfish live mainly in large rivers and deep channels, but can thrive in larger acreage ponds with plenty of space. They follow a more carnivorous diet, feeding heavily on bluegill, shad, and other small fish. They are less likely than channel cats to eat plant matter or scavenge dead fish. Blue catfish eat best when stocked with a strong baitfish population and are known to reach trophy sizes in well-managed waters.
Flathead Catfish
Often considered the apex predator of the catfish family, the flathead catfish is a true hunter. Unlike other species, flathead catfish eat almost exclusively live prey-especially sunfish, minnows, and crayfish. Don't rely on pellets or dead bait-these fish want the chase. They are ideal for larger ponds that already support a balanced food source of other fish.
Bullhead Catfish
Hardy and easy to catch, bullhead catfish (including brown bullhead catfish) are smaller but plentiful in Midwest ponds. Bullhead catfish eat a mix of algae, insects, and whatever they can scavenge, thriving in ponds with lower water quality. While not usually the top pick for sport fishing, they're great for beginner anglers and can help maintain pond balance.
Natural Food Sources in Acreage Ponds
Kansas ponds are home to a wide variety of natural foods that most catfish will happily eat. Building and supporting a strong food web ensures your pond stays healthy-and your fish stay hungry.
What Naturally Occurs in Kansas Ponds:
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- Aquatic insects like dragonflies, mayflies, and midges.
- Crustaceans, especially crayfish, found near rocks or vegetation.
- Small fish such as minnows, bluegill, and shad.
- Amphibians like frogs, tadpoles, and salamanders.
- Occasional rodents or even birds near water's edge.
To encourage a self-sustaining food web, add structure like logs, rocks, or brush piles to support baitfish and insect life. Avoid overstocking predator fish like flathead catfish or blue catfish without enough prey. Let leaf litter and organic debris break down naturally-this boosts bug life and feeds the entire pond food chain.
Supplemental Feeding: Giving Catfish an Extra Boost
While Kansas ponds can support natural forage, supplemental feeding gives your catfish-especially fast-growing species like blue catfish and channel cats-an extra boost. A smart feeding program helps fish grow faster, stay healthier, and makes them easier to catch. It boosts growth in both juvenile and adult catfish, especially in high-density ponds. It conditions catfish to feed in predictable spots-making it easier to land a big one. It supports fish health during colder seasons or droughts when natural feeding activity may slow.
Floating pellets with 28-32% protein are ideal for adult catfish like channel catfish. Fingerlings and younger fish benefit from higher protein (35-40%) for fast early growth. Choose floating feed if you want to observe feeding and limit waste; sinking pellets work better for true bottom feeders like channel cats.
Alternative Homemade or Live Feeds:
- Shrimp, cut bait, and chicken livers are all high-protein options that most catfish species will eat.
- Daphnia, chopped fish, and nightcrawler fished in feeding zones also make great protein-rich alternatives.
- Live baitfish (especially fathead minnows) help satisfy the predatory instinct of blue catfish and flatheads.
Feeding Techniques and Schedules
A feeding plan that's consistent and tailored to your pond can transform the quality of your fish population. Here's how to do it right:
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- Feed once or twice a day during warmer months (above 60°F).
- Skip feeding when water temps drop below 50°F-catfish metabolism slows drastically.
- Use consistent timing and location to train catfish to feed in specific zones of the pond.
- Only offer what fish can consume within 10-15 minutes.
- Remove or reduce uneaten food to avoid polluting the pond and reducing water quality.
- Watch for signs of overfeeding, like cloudy water, uneaten pellets, or sluggish behavior.
Seasonal Adjustments to Feeding
Kansas weather shifts dramatically from summer heat to freezing winters. Your catfish feeding strategy should shift with it.
- Spring and Summer: As the water warms, increase both the amount and frequency of feeding. These are the prime growing seasons-especially for blue catfish and channel cats.
- Fall: Begin reducing feed as nights cool and water temperatures dip below 60°F. Your fish will naturally bulk up before winter; don't overdo it.
- Winter: When water drops below 50°F, catfish stop eating regularly. Discontinue feeding entirely to avoid waste build-up on the pond bottom. Avoid stirring sediment, especially in deep pools, where catfish may be resting.
The Catfish Diet: A Comprehensive Look
Catfish are native to most continents and enjoy a similar (and varied) diet all over the world. The North American catfish family includes 45 different species. These range vastly in size from less than a pound to well over 100 pounds, but they all have a few physical characteristics in common. They have leathery skin (without scales) that's equipped with chemoreceptors, which give them a heightened sense of smell when looking for food. They also have barbels resembling a cat's whiskers around their mouths that are equipped with taste receptors.
Live Feeders vs. Scavengers
Generally speaking, flatheads catfish are predators that like to ambush live fish. Blue and channel catfish are mostly scavengers that will also prey on other fish when given the opportunity.
A catfish's diet depends on what's available, as well as the fish's age and size. Flatheads are voracious meateaters that will seek out live prey. They'll typically target perch and other small panfish, but they can also swallow fish like bowfin that are nearly as large as they are. They'll even attack and eat some non-fish species like frogs, mice, and even ducklings.
Blue catfish are the undisputed heavyweights of the American catfish family, and they can even outgrow flatheads. Although they'll prey on live fish, blues will also scavenge for invertebrates and dead fish, and they'll occasionally pick up inanimate objects while feeling their way along the bottom. They favour mussels, mollusks, and asiatic clams in several watersheds.
The average channel cat tips the scales at a modest 2 to 4 pounds, but they can surpass 40 pounds under the right conditions. This is because channel catfish are omnivorous and opportunistic by nature. Younger channel cats will eat a variety of plants, along with small invertebrates, insects, and mollusks. As they grow, they typically shift to a more carnivorous diet and will add more fish and crustaceans to their diet.
Bullhead catfish are often overlooked by anglers because they're the smallest of the four main species, typically maxing out around 20 inches long. They are efficient scavengers that spend most of their lives rummaging around the bottom.
Habitat and Feeding Habits
Catfish will adapt their diet to various environments, and they inhabit both rivers and stillwaters. Catfish are bottom dwellers, but they don't feed on bottom 100 percent of the time. More often than not, catfish are found on or near the bottom of waterbodies. A lot of times at night, they'll come up into more shallow areas more toward the surface and feed.
Most catfish in rivers are migratory. They tend to hold and feed in long, deep pools and slackwater eddies. Flatheads like to hide behind structure and boulders in large rivers and reservoirs to ambush other fish. Channel catfish prefer open river channels, but they also do well in stillwaters. River catfish will move in and out of currents to feed on anything that swims or drifts by, often using high-water events to indulge in a feeding frenzy.
Temperature and Feeding
Just like all other cold-blooded species, a catfish's appetite will change depending on temperatures. The warmer they are, the higher their metabolism, and the more they're going to eat. As the water temperatures drop, their feeding activity tapers off as they're unwilling to move far to chase down a meal. During colder months, catfish will sometimes move into shallower spots as they warm up more quickly.
Best Baits and Lures for Catfish
The options for catfish bait are as varied as their diets, but it's always best to think about what the main food sources are in the water body you're fishing. When targeting bullheads, a nightcrawler fished on the bottom is sometimes all you need. Channel cats can be caught on simple baits like white bread, cheese, or chicken gizzards, but as a rule of thumb, the smellier the bait the better. Especially in warmer water, where smells disperse more quickly. There are all sorts of different stinkbaits that can be bought at a bait shop or made at home.
If you're looking to tangle with the larger catfish species, using live or cut bait is often a better way to go. Shad, Garlic, or Anise Smelly Jelly, or give your bait a spritz of BANG aerosol scent, and it's game on. Remember, all cats have sharp noses, so using natural scents while keeping bad smells-fuel, sunblock, or insect repellents-off your hands can make all the difference. As for artificial lures, shad imitations or 4- to 6-inch grubs on a lead-head jig will work when the fish are feeling feisty.
Fresh shad, either whole or cut, is the No. 1 best bait for blues, hands-down.
It's a toss-up between which is the better bait for flatheads-a live green sunfish or a small bullhead catfish. For bank/ditty poles, the ultra-hardy bullhead often gets the nod. Cut bait, such as shad, can be effective, but in most places (where legal, check regs), you're better off fishing a hand-sized sunfish, bluegill, sucker, or bullhead. If you want to try something different for flatheads, try big goldfish.
Key Points: What the Experts Say
- Understanding what catfish eat is about tapping into their adaptable and opportunistic feeding habits. Seasonal changes, varying aquatic environments and available forage all play a significant role in shaping a catfish's diet.
- For anglers looking to land a giant catfish, success hinges on understanding their dietary habits and mimicking what they're inclined to eat in their habitat.
- Researchers have answered many questions about blue catfish - how many there are in Virginia’s tidal rivers, how fast they’re spreading to new areas, and how fast they’re growing. But one remained unanswered until now: How much do blue catfish eat in a given day?
- A new study is the first to estimate food consumption rates for blue catfish in four tidal tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay: The James River, the Mattaponi River, the Pamunkey River, and the Rappahannock River.
- On average, a blue catfish eats roughly 2-5 percent of its body weight in food in a day during peak feeding season, according to the research published in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.
- The researchers also measured how much a blue catfish would eat if they had unlimited food available to them - in this case, blue crab or gizzard shad - and found that the catfish could eat anywhere from 8-9 percent of their body weight in a day.
- Medium-sized blue catfish consumed more food than the largest blue catfish in the laboratory tanks, although it was unclear whether this eating pattern also holds true out in Virginia’s tidal rivers.
Additional Dietary Considerations
It should come as no surprise that catfish feeding strategies are as diverse as the species themselves. Catfishes and Aquarium Feeding The feeding of aquarium catfishes, or all fishes for that matter, has in many ways changed immensely since this magazine first debuted in late 1952. Commercial fish food formulas have gone through a lot of improvement, and these have benefited both keeper and pet.
Plecos and Other Veggie-Eating Catfish For quite a few years, loricariids have been at the zenith of their popularity, and it only seems to keep peaking. Commercial Diets Loricariids adapt very well to commercial captive diets overall, and generally these should consist of foods with a higher percentage of vegetal material. Such foods also provide animal-based material to round out the nutritional profile. Most commercial foods tend to utilize Spirulina as their primary vegetal base.
There is also some increased use of Chlorella algae (a single-celled microalgae), which is a promising development. Additionally, some formulas are utilizing various vegetables that you might expect to find at your dinner table. At least a couple of such foods are noted to contain (in addition to Spirulina) the following ingredients: carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, and spinach. Of course, these foods have many additional elements, including vitamins and minerals, to round out their nutritional profile. Many of these commercial foods will be found in various formats-flakes, discs, sticks-so you can choose whichever fits the needs of your particular catfishes.
Vegetables The feeding of real vegetables, as noted in some commercial foods above, is a tried-and-true method of providing green food to loricariids, and many other catfishes for that matter. There are numerous veggies that make an excellent and appreciated food source. This is an area wherein you can experiment to find your catfishes’ tastes. A good place to start is with zucchini (or other squashes). These can be washed and then sliced (long- or cross-way, your choice) and offered to the fish.
Other Veggies From zucchini, let your imagination run wild and try a variety of veggies. The FDA publishes nutritional charts for vegetables, and these can be a good guide to help you choose a good mix. Among others, I really like canned (or frozen) green beans.
Meaty Supplements As a last thought, it should be noted that even the most algae eating of grazing loricariids do regularly ingest smaller quantities of meaty foods as part of the process. This may include insect larvae, small crustaceans, etc. So in addition to regular commercial-style foods, algae, and vegetables, do, in small quantities, regularly add foods such as frozen or freeze-dried brine shrimp, bloodworms, small krill, etc. for that extra flavor and nutritional punch. You can offer it right alongside the other foods or as a separate treat.
Predatory Catfishes There are many aquarium-popular catfishes that are generally considered as a fish-eating group, but it can be taken beyond this in general principle. This diet grouping is not necessarily correct, as other foods such as shrimp, crabs, mollusks, etc. may also be eaten depending on the environment and/or time of the year. Many such predatory catfishes are also known to eat various fruits, again depending on the seasonal availability.
Vegetal Material Even catfishes that may not specifically eat fruits do often ingest vegetal material in other ways. One way is that when prey items are digested, the contents of their gut then become food for the fish that ate them. At least some of the various prey fishes for a wide variety of predators are known to be vegetarians or detritus eaters. Detritus is broken-down vegetal material, generally with a good complement of micro and macro invertebrates. It has also been noted that predatory fishes may secondarily ingest some vegetal material when they are chasing and capturing their prey.
So for any predatory catfishes that you might keep, do work on getting some vegetal material into their diet. Direct feeding of vegetables or fruits is ideal if possible, but if not, do feed them prepared foods (at least in part) with a good algal/vegetable formula. If you are a live-fish feeder, do use healthy fish and make sure to gutload them with a similar food before introducing them to the predator's tank.
Another group of predatory catfishes to be considered are the insectivore/mixed carnivore type. Actually, many of these might be more properly classified, for aquarium feeding purposes, as omnivores. This basically means that they take good amounts of meaty and vegetal foods. This includes many smaller and medium-sized catfishes that make their living by feeding primarily on insect larvae and pupae. Such a diet may also include terrestrial insects that unluckily fall into the water and other small meaty foods such as crustaceans, mollusks, etc.
Variety And their prey items are often life forms that make their living feeding on vegetation-sourced foods. Again, this is another good, and necessary, reason to make sure that this group of catfishes gets some green foods added to their diet. Many of these will take small amounts of regular vegetables but will do equally well on some of the available prepared foods (flakes, discs, sticks) that have a decent vegetal content. Just remember, pleco foods aren't just for plecos! They are an excellent addition to …
Catfish Nutrition in Aquaculture
Nutrient requirements and feeding characteristics of channel catfish have been extensively researched. This research has provided the basis for the formulation of efficient, economical diets and for the development of feeding strategies - both of which have been instrumental in the success of the catfish industry.
Catfish farmers are able to feed a nutritionally complete diet that provides required levels of nutrients and energy in a readily digestible form. It is essential to provide a complete diet because natural food organisms only supply a small portion of the overall nutritional needs of catfish in intensively stocked ponds except during the early life stage. Forty nutrients have been identified as necessary for the normal growth and metabolic functions of channel catfish.
Protein is the most expensive nutrient of catfish feeds, so considerable work has been conducted over the last 20 years concerning the level of dietary protein and essential amino acids needed for cost-effective production of catfish. Data from these studies indicate that the dietary protein requirement for various life stages of catfish ranges from about 25 to 50 percent. Pond studies have shown that a protein level of 28 percent is adequate for food fish grow out when fish are fed to satiation daily.
Based on current knowledge, a digestible energy to digestible protein (DE/DP) ratio of 10-11 kcal/gram is optimal for growth of catfish raised from advanced fingerlings to market size. Ratios above this range may lead to increased fat deposition and reduced processed yield, and if the ratio is too low, that means some of the more expensive protein is used for energy which is not economical. Catfish feeds contain grain and grain by-products that are rich in starch. In addition to providing an inexpensive energy source, starch helps bind feed ingredients together and increases expansion of extruded feeds so that the feed pellets are water stable and float in the water. A typical catfish feed contains 25 percent or more of digestible carbohydrates.
Fat is a concentrated source of energy and it can spare protein being used for energy. However, too much dietary fat will produce fatty fish which is undesirable for the consumer. Fat levels in commercial catfish feeds rarely exceed 5-6 percent. About 3-4 percent of the fat is inherent in the feed ingredients, with the remaining 1-2 percent being sprayed onto the finished pellets mainly to reduce feed dust or “fines,” but also to supply some energy and essential fatty acids. Both vegetable and animal oils/fats can be used for pellet coating, but animal fats (such as menhaden fish oil, catfish oil, and poultry fat or mixture) are typically used.
Catfish feeds are generally supplemented with a vitamin premix to meet dietary requirements and to compensate for losses due to feed manufacture and storage. Catfish feeds are also supplemented with phosphorus and a trace mineral premix to meet mineral requirements. Phosphorus supplements can be replaced by microbial phytase, an enzyme that can effectively release the bond-form of phosphorus in plant feedstuffs making it available to the fish.
Types of Catfish Feeds
Catfish feeds are mainly plant-based, though feeds for fry and small fingerlings contain some fish meal and other animal proteins. Major ingredients used in catfish feeds generally include soybean meal, cottonseed meal, corn and by-products, and wheat by-products.
There are various types of catfish feeds. The type being used at any particular time is a function of life stage and size of fish being fed, whether the fish are fed during the growing season or winter, and if an antibiotic is incorporated.
Catfish fry in hatcheries are fed finely ground meal- or flour-type feeds containing 45-50 percent protein. Once the fry are stocked in nursery ponds, they are typically fed a meal-type feed containing about 40 percent protein. Some producers feed fry with ”fines” from 28 or 32 percent protein feeds for food fish grow out until they reach 1-2 inches in length. During this stage, catfish fry can obtain most of their nutrients from natural foods such as large zooplankton, small insects, and insect larvae, if the ponds are properly fertilized.
Larger fingerlings are fed small floating pellets (1/8 inch diameter) containing 35 percent protein. Advanced fingerlings (5-6 inches) and food fish are generally fed a floating feed of approximately 5/32 - 3/16 inch in diameter containing 28-32 percent protein. Some producers switch to a slow-sinking feed during the winter.
Antibiotics are administered to catfish through incorporation in feeds (medicated feeds). Three antibiotics (Terramycin®, Romet®, and Aquaflor®) have been approved by FDA to treat bacterial infections in catfish.