age of a cat

[TMT]

Is there a easy way to tell the age of a catfish, that is taken from around here?

[katchaser]

The only reliable way to age a catfish is to remove the otolith (an inner ear bone) and count the annulus rings.

[peder]

But that leave the poor fish deaf.

[DTro]

You talking about this fish by any chance?

[hanson]

That face looks familiar? No?

[TMT]

Yep.

That is my buddy Slimey's cat he caught it on 7-18. 41 lbs, on the Minnesota. His biggest cat yet. He almost looks like a proud father!

Any idea how old a 40 pounder is from the Minnesota? Almost everybody I showed the pictures to asked the question.

Thanks for posting it DTRO.

[TMT]

The Cat or the guy holding it?

[Fish'n guy]

Otolith ring sampleing is generally something that they do on game fish species (walleyes, bass, perch, etc.) Catfish can fortunately be aged by means of clipping the pectorial spines and counting the rings on them. This is accurate and efficient cause the fish can be aged without killing it!

[katchaser]

Quote:

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Catfish can fortunately be aged by means of clipping the pectorial spines and counting the rings on them.

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Andy

My research shows that aging catfish with spine clipping is only accurate out to 3 or 4 years. After that age the lumen becomes less and less distinguishable and annulus rings more difficult to see. By this I mean any flathead over 10 years old would be diificult enough to age with fin clippings to cause an error of 2 or more years.

The necessity to know the exact age must be very important before removing the otolith because this is fatal. This process involves surgery and preparing slides for a microscope for accurate aging.

My research has shown that very few catfish have ever been sampled that were over 20 years old.

[Fish'n guy]

Some people do it differeently but in my experiences the tests that we have conducted the pectorial spine clipping was what we were taught to do specifically on flathead catfish. I can see how otolith rings are much easier to read but spine samples are just as accurate in my experiences and can been done on a larger population of flatheads therefore giving a much more accurate general growth rate of the population. Its kinda fun being a student in the field of wildlife and fisheries sciences at SDSU cause it ultimately make one better informed about important info like this!!

[Larry FlatCaster]

i have a book out on loan that give the approx age compared with the size... I think that its pretty accurate with in 1-2 years. When I get it back I will give an update on the data.

[sparcebag]

That would be nice LFC,I only found Bass Approx. weights in Mn. For them Growth AVG> 1/4 lb. per. yr.