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@C-4
Are you the guy who is raising catfish ?
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@Swampgrass
Yes. I need to update that. I didn't get them to breed this past season.
I've decided to keep them outdoors for the winter, against my better judgement.
They grew too much so there is no way I can keep all of them (20+) inside. So they are in their 550 gallon tank with the water filtering through 250 gallons of expanded shale media and then into a sump tank that has the pump that sends the water back to the fish tank. I can keep fish in the sump tank but don't have any there at the moment.
I put silvered bubble wrap type insulation around all of the tanks. I also have tarps over the tops of them to help keep the cold air off them. The 1" water return tubing has pipe foam insulation around them and then a layer of silvered bubble wrap insulation. Only one of the return tubes is on. The other one is identical in every way including a pump but is only there as back-up if the other tube/pump fails. It was just easier designing it with two pumps and two water lines than trying to mess with it in freezing weather in the middle of February.
I can easily keep the tank 20 to 25F above ambient with an 800W electric heater. It has a thermostat that controls it. On really cold nights, I will drain out some water and add hot water from a tap in the house through a hose. My plan is to keep the tank at ~ 50F until the middle of January. I will continue to feed them until then and then from mid-January until end of February I will let the temperature drop to 40F and feed very little, if at all. Then resume feeding, hoping that they don't lose much weight, which they shouldn't at that temperature since their metabolism will really slow down.
I have a separate 300 gallon stock tank that houses is single large male. That would be the breeding tank if I can get a female to produce eggs. In the last picture, you can see the male tank in the top right of the picture. It's the 300 gallon one.