THE SPAWNING BEHAVIOR OF THE CHANNEL CATFISH 

 ICTALURUS PUNCTATUS 



INTRODUCTION 



Channel catfish play an important role 

 as game and food fish in North America . The 

 demand for channel -catfish fingerlings to stock 

 waters for sport fishing has increased steadily 

 during the past few years . Recent information 

 has shown that the species is adaptable to a 

 large variety of habitats and water conditions, 

 that it is compatible with other species such as 

 bass, bluegill, and crappie, and that it will do 

 well when stocked alone without other forage 

 species. Brown (1951) has demonstrated that 

 the channel catfish will produce more pounds of 

 edible fish per acre of water than any other 

 species normally stocked in Texas ponds . 



From the commercial standpoint, the 

 rise of fish farming in the rice fields of Arkan- 

 sas, Louisiana, and Texas has indicated that 

 the channel catfish is one of the most desirable 

 species to grow as food for human consumption. 

 At the present time, the demand for catfish as 

 food cannot be satisfied by commercial fishing 

 in natural waters, which makes the market for 

 domestically reared catfish particularly attrac- 

 tive to private fish farmers . Most hatcheries 

 have reported difficulty in spawning channel 

 catfish and some have failed completely be- 

 cause of fragmentary information and lack of 

 understanding of the various aspects involved. 



To meet this increased demand for 

 channel-catfish fingerlings in Federal and State 

 hatcheries and by private growers, it has be- 

 come necessary to learn more of the reproduc- 

 tion of this species and improve techniques 

 involved in its propagation . The problem in 

 basic outline involves spawning, disease control, 

 and nutrition. Primarily important is the spawn- 

 ing. Therefore, in order to ensure more 

 successful spawning and to give the fish-cultur- 

 istgreato: control of time and method of handling, 

 we have investigated the pituitary injection 

 method to induce spawning. The present paper 

 reports the behavior of channel catfish induced 

 to spawn in glass aquariums after fish -pituitary 

 injections. 



Details of the spawning behavior of the 

 channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus , are frag- 

 mentary. The only descriptions of the actual 

 spawning of chaiuiel catfish are those of Murphree 

 (1940) and Lenz (1947). Fontaine (1944) de- 

 scribed the spawning of the flathead catfish, 

 Pilodictis olivaris , in the Dallas Aquarium and 

 mentioned that some aspects of their behavior 

 were similar to those of channel catfish and the 

 brown bullhead, Ameiurus nebulosus , which also 

 had spawned in the Dallas Aquarium . Other 

 papers which have contributed to an understand- 

 ing of the conditions conducive to successful 

 spawning of this species in captivity are those 

 of Shlra (1917a, 1917 b), Clapp (1929), Doze 

 (1925 a, 1925 b), Mobley (1931), Morris (1939), 

 Rennick (1942), Toole (1951), and Canfield (1947). 

 Davis(1953) summarized the generally accepted 

 methods of artificial propagation of the channel 

 catfish . 



Spawning activities have been recorded 

 for Ameiurus nebulosus by Breder (1935), Fowler 

 (1917), and Smith and Harron (1904); for A. catus 

 by Fowler (1917); for_A. albidus by Ryder (1883); 

 for Schilbeodes insignis by Fowler (1917); for 

 Pilodictis olivaris by Fontaine (1944); and for A. 

 nataUs by Fowler (1917). 



METHODS AND FACILITIES 



Glass aquariums with capacities of 6, 10, 

 and 35 gallons were used for spawning containers. 

 These squariums were placed on a bench 30 

 inches high in the holding house of the U.S. Fish 

 Cultural Station, Tishomingo, Oklahoma, where 

 workers frequently passed. Each aquarium was 

 supplied with flowing water . A tar -paper mat 

 was placed on the bottom of each aquarium so 

 that the eggs could be easily removed if necessary. 



Fish ranging in total length from 14 to 22 

 inches were used, a male usually being paired 

 with a slightly smaller female . The females 

 were injected with fish pituitaries to induce 

 spawning. Usually several injections of fresh or 

 acetone-dried pituitaries were necessary to pre- 

 cipitate spawning, and even then only a few of 



