The catfish has retired 2-1-12

Many of you have expressed concern about the large, striped Panga catfish that resided in the back fish tank. He had a large boo-boo on the front of his snout from the last fish tank. The boo-boo was a recurring injury after he continually failed to stop before hitting the glass sides of the old tank. In fact, we suspect that these continous impacts hastened the demise of the last tank. The broken 72 gallon was replaced with the 125 gallon tank about five weeks ago...and the Panga catfish has not eaten since. We tried every little delicacy that we could think of, and Eminem the Oscar gulped down every one of them with gusto---but still the Panga refused to eat. We tried several types of medicine to heal the injury on his nose, but his condition never changed. Thus it was with a heavy heart that we decided to release him into a large pond on a small farm 1 mile east of I-75. Lacking a net large enough for the 18" long catfish, we cornered him in a bucket placed below the surface of the water. Then we immediately transferred him to a huge tupperware container and placed a lid on it to calm him. Sasha volunteered to accompany me and Panga to the farm, as she enjoys wandering around the property. The release into the pond went without a hitch, and Panga swam happily off. I shall check on him this weekend when Sasha and I go back to work on the boat that is stored there.