Are bullhead catfish good in a lake?

Question

there a hundreds maybe more baby bullhead catfish entering my private 5 acre lake via a stream - should I prevent them from entering the lake - or are they good for lake

Answer 1

They're very hardy fish that don't require a lot of oxygen.Therefor they can survive in the worst of ponds and lakes.If anything they'll clean up the bottom of your lake and provide food for bigger fish.On the plus size they are easy to catch.A pond by my house has lots of them and it attracts a lot of egrets and cranes.

Answer 2

If you have predatory fish (bass, northern, walleye) in your pond, they will eat the bullheads.

IMO they would be good for your pond, they will clean up the bottom and eat some algae from the bottom.

Answer 3

Like the others I think they would be good for your lake keeping it clean and providing a good source of food for all of the other fish in the lake.

I've seen lots of different types of fish just go crazy when they see a large black school swimming by - they just do like the barracudas do in the ocean and just start swimming thru them fast and munching them down... smallmouth, largemouth, trout, crappie, pike even bluegill will do it!!

Definately a good thing - if you notice too many of them just increase the number of predators you have in the lake and it should balance out.  

Like everyone says they're fun to catch too - small kids love catching them because they're usually so easy to catch - kids have a short attention span for fishing so when they aren't catching anything they aren't having a good time....

If you want to help them survive, try putting a few beds of large gravel and maybe some flat rocks in with them so they can hide in the rocks - consider it a fish attractant too since the fish will come over there looking for them and it may also attract crayfish too - another food for gamefish and another predator for the small bullhead (until they get big enough to eat them!!)

Wish you luck....

Answer 4

Well, I would say they are neither good or bad all the time, it has a lot to do with other fish. My uncle has a pond with only them in it, and it is complete garbage, but I also have a friend with a bunch of bullhead in his pond intermingling with other fish, but his pond looks decent. The one bonus though is that they are fun and easy to catch, but you have to watch the spines.