As well as my other post on sturgeon, I have also been looking at catfish. Not sure what particular type, but I noticed some the other week in a shop; small dark fish with rather long 'whiskers'. What are they? Are they common pond fish? Thanks!

Are you sure they were for a pond? If so, then as with the Sterlets, they're only really suitable for very large ponds and will eat pretty much everything else in there. There are a lot of restrictions on the sale of these so depending on what it is you may have to get a licence from DEFRA to keep it. I also understand a lot of these will only eat live foods - i.e. other fish, which is not good.

Quote:

Noodle is not wrong.

"DIET

The channel catfish is an opportunistic omnivore, gorging itself on nearly any form of living or dead material. Being primarily a nocturnal animal, channel catfish must rely on its sensory organs, including the well-developed barbels, to find food. Their diet consists of aquatic insects, worms, clams, crayfish, snails, and fish, all of which could be dead or alive. Their stomachs might be packed with vegetable materials dropped into the water or minnows depending on what’s available. However, big channel catfish eat almost nothing but fish."

Taken from THIS Article

Crikey! Well I am SURE they were in a big tank with one other type of fish in the shop...I may go back and check as they did just look like normal dark fish but had very long barbels. I'll report back...