Makeshift Catfish Tank, Please Help

[cheetree]

Hi, i just set up my yellow bellied catfish in there tank. i think theyve adjusted well, but i have a few questions.
first off, after i put the fish in the water, they started swimming around in circles and jerking their heads slightly. All of them did it at the same time. They stopped after a few seconds though, is that something to worry about? they are yellow bellied catfish so i didnt bother letting them get used to the water because they are really tough fish. although i did hand check the temperature, it wasnt freezing cold or boiling hot! it was about the same temp as their original water. however, i used hose water, and because they are catfish, i only let the water air out for about thirty minutes. i collected the gravel myself from a dirt road outside of my house. I filled up a 20 gallon aquarium about a third of they way. This is truly a makeshift tank! i dont have a filtration system but i plan to do a 20% water change every week, so is that ok?
Also, i am feeding the catfish nightcrawlers, grasshoppers, small frogs, pieces of chicken, and grubs. is all of that ok?
i have a water heater, and the tank is around the upper 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
One more thing, are yellow bellies nocturnal? they are all lying at the bottom of the tank right now and i guess they are sleeping. they are definitely alive, but lazily swim around. is this a problem?

please answer quickly!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

What has possessed you to expose this poor catfish to such poor husbandry?

• It sounds like you dumped in straight in untreated tap water from the wild, without acclimitising the fish to the tank water for at least 30 minutes, to get used to temperature and water chemistry differences from the river(?). Tap water chlorine is not good for any fish, even "really tough fish," you need to get some dechlorinator ASAP (Seachem Prime ideally).
• No filter and planned 20% water changes per week?!!! This catfish needs a filter, which again needs the water dechlorinating so that a bacteria colony can survive and keep the water safe for the fish. Having added this catfish to an immature system, you need to be changing 75-95% of the water daily without fail while you have no filter and even with a filter you will need to be doing >50% daily water changes, for about the next 4 months.
• The sooner you can buy a liquid test kit the better, you need to monitor the water quality daily for the next few months and rreact with emergency massive water changes whenever you get positive results for nitrite or when you see >1mg/l of ammonia.
• Gravel from the dirt road outside your house?!!! What exactly makes you think that this will be fish safe, especially if vehicles regularly drive over this dirt track? Oil/petrol/diesel etc. are all lethal to fish in the tinisest of concentrations.
• What temperature was the water where the catfish came from? That would be a good start, but these fish are temperate, I suspect that a good portion of the year their water is less than 65F.
• Your fish's species name is Ameiurus melas, PlanetCatfish (as often) gives a good profile.

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm sorry if we all sound so harsh, cheetree, but the other posters are right.

There's a lot more to keeping fish than just filling up a tank with water and putting fish in it. I very, very, VERY strongly recommend you take those fish back to where they came from.

I'm afraid they aren't going to last very long in an unfiltered, uncycled tank; every second they're in there the water wlil be getting more and more poisoned by the fish's wastes.

They are nocturnal, but the lying on the bottom (and jerking when you put them in) screams out ammonia and chlorine affected fish to me. Letting water air for 30 minutes is very unlikely to have got rid of enough chlorine, and chlorine paralyses fish's gills, so they won't be able to breathe properly.

If you want to learn to keep fish well and happy, we'll all be more than happy to help, but for the sake of those poor fish, please take them back.

 

[colleen0309]

There is really no reason to get nasty! Alot of people come here from other sites because of comments like this. How many of us came home from the creek when we were little with a minnow or frog, ect... and thought we were going to keep it? We weren't stupid, just uninformed.
To the OP... Fluttermoth seems to be the only one giving advice, and it's good advice. First of all, a 20 gallon tank will not be large enough for these fish for very long, under the best circumstances. Ammonia and nitrite will kill them. You need a cycled filter. Unfortunately, the best thing for these fish is to let them go back where you got them immediately. Then do some research on the fish. If you still want to keep them, set them up a proper home, then go catch more, or buy them. If it's not too personal, could I ask how old you are? You sound young, excited, and uninformed. This sounds like my kids when they were little. If you are older, I hope I haven't offended you. If you insist on keeping these fish, they will probably die, but I will try to help you if I can. But the best thing for those beautiful little fish is to release them asap.

 

[fluttermoth]

I agree, colleen; accusations of trolling aren't going to help this guy or his fish, and a lot of people are that misinformed as beginners.

We can't always assume people are trolling just because they seem to be asking, what to us seem, stupid questions.

 

[colleen0309]

I agree, colleen; accusations of trolling aren't going to help this guy or his fish, and a lot of people are that misinformed as beginners.

We can't always assume people are trolling just because they seem to be asking, what to us seem, stupid questions.

I still remember coming home from the creek when I was very young with a coffee can with a mudskipper(what we called them) and a big crayfish. I was so excited and wanted to keep them. My dad made me take the fish back but let me keep the crayfish. He set up a kiddie swimming pool and ran a hose to it so they would have a constant supply of fresh well water. What a surprise when the crayfish opened her tail and let 200 babies swim into the pool we created. I learned the hard way how hard it is to supply a wild animal with the food and care they need. But I raised those babies until they were big enough to release and I never brought something like that home again. I really understand the excitement and wanting to keep those catfish and calling someone stupid doesn't help them or the fish. If this is someone trolling to get a reaction, you have it. I will help any way I can. I don't get angry about stupid questions because the only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask.

 

[ZoddyZod]

all posts not attempting to answer the OPs questions have been removed. By posting some of the flaming comments you have possibly deterered the OP from returning.

Instead of helping the OP and guiding them on what is suitable for fish (which is the one of the things this forum is great at), we've probably just scared them away and left the fish in unsuitable conditions.

 

[delta]

I would like to apologise for being unsympathetic and I sincerely hope that the OP benefits from the sensible advice that has been given and gets to a point where they can enjoy their fish.