Bass vs. Barbel

Question
QUESTION: Hey Jack

I live on a farm in South Africa. The farm is located next to a river with reasonable amounts of barbel and large/small mouth bass. Now, seeing as we have a number of dams on the farm, we have started to catch and transfer fish from the river to the dams in order to make the fishing experience a little more enjoyable. My question is whether or not it is a good thing to throw barbel and bass in the same dam.

Thank You
Bossie


ANSWER: Bosman; Hi South Africa,  I am not sure what a barbel fish is unless it is something we call a catfish.  Our catfish all 60odd species have a couple of things in common.  They have no scales but rather a tough slick skin and all have what we call whiskers or barbels on their snout or chin.  These are soft and are used to either smell or detect in some other way prey or food.  They all have three sharp horns or fins, one on the dorsal and one on each side.

If this is the same fish and the fish are about the same size putting them both in the same pond (dam) is not likely to be a problem so long as they also have sufficient food species to feed on.  Here we have both kinds in ponds and they both seem to do well if plenty of bluegills or other prey species are plentiful.

However, I would suggest that you check with any fish and game officials are in your area.  I really do not know enough about your government to know whether you have anything akin to our state fish and game commissions.  Maybe you could give me a better definition of "barbel" and I could be more definite in my answer.

I hope this has been of some help, even if it is not absolutely a definitive answer.  Keep this in mind.  Once you put the two species into a pond it is very difficult to get them out again unless you can drain the pond and leave it empty for a year or so.  Even then some kinds of catfish survive without water by burrowing in wet mud so the bottom of the pond would have to be treated to get rid of them.

If there is any other way I can be of help please call on me.
I am
Jack L. Gaither (JackfromSeminole)
Lake Seminole, Georgia, U.S.A.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank You Jack

Barbel are indeed a species of catfish, they have a thick slick skin and the whiskers you mentioned. The problem we encounter in South Africa however is that they tend to starve the bass populations in rivers. We find that in southern regions of the country with a Mediterranean climate, rivers are stocked to the brim with barbel and have less bass. In contrast to this, several people have told me that adding barbel, along with bass, to a dam (or pond as you call it) can actually have a positive effect on the population of bass in the dam. I find this really strange as we as children were led to believe that barbel ate bass and left bluegills for dessert.

So I guess my question is whether or not any species of catfish would prefer bass or bass eggs to other species of bait fish. Also whether our climate better suits barbel than bass, in which case it would be better to leave the dominating species apart from the more sensitive.

As for fish and game commissions, well they're very forgiving in farm areas as these areas usually produce more fish and game when left to function on their own.

Enjoying the sunshine
Bosman

Answer
Of course the catfish or barbel species may be like one species here in America.  Most catfish are scavengers and would rather scavenge than attack live prey.  However, there is a species here that eats only live prey and when they get into a new area they almost always decimate the population of what we call brim which is actually a sunfish.  These catfish grow to over 50lbs so it takes a large brim of nearly half pound to use as bait for the big ones.  You may have such a fish in your waters.  If you put bass and barbels in the same dam and the bass disappear then I would put only bass along with some prey species in one dam and barbels with their prey species in another.  If they want bass feed them bass but don't expect to catch bass in such a dam.  By the way are the barbels considered good eating or a good sporting fish to catch?  We eat catfish a great deal here especially in the Southern half of the country.  There are many "catfish houses" where people flock to eat fried catfish.  Mostly these are small fish, around a pound before dressing.  Many places serve all you can eat.  I can eat 7-8 of them when I feel hungry for catfish.  They are a delicious fish.

Enjoying the sunshine here too today it is in the 80s F. here with a few clouds.  It has been cool at night sometimes dropping down to the mid to high 30s F.  We usually get one or two hard freezes a year here but they seldom last more than a day or two.  a few hundred miles north where I used to live they are under 6-8 inches of ICE not snow but ICE.  It was one of those ice storms back in 1968 that made me decide to move south.  I have been here around Lat 31 N for the past 39 years and have seen snow four times.  It never lasted more than a day or two.

Well I better shut up.  I am supposed to be answering a question and here I go off on some tangent.

Have a good time this summer while I am having our winter.

JackfromSeminole