Catfish disease

Recently caught a catfish in my backyard tank. Its shared with a few neighbors and is about 1.5 acres. I have never caught a catfish in my 15 years living here. Was thinking that the tank isn't big enough to support catfish or is this a parasite? I didn't throw him back. We have bass and perch in the tank.

Thanks,

Possum

It’s a parasite most of other fish will start showing them to. It comes from a fresh water snails about the size of B.B. Best way to remove them is to stock perch( red ear aka shell cracker). Not 100% sure on name because everyone calls them something different. Theses perch have very small mouths and most pond stocking farms sale them. Only takes a few years before the parasites are gone.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/sunfish/

The red ear perch stops the parasites first host the snail by eating them. Which breaks the parasite life cycle putting a stop from entering your fish.

Trust me they work we have 20 acre pond that had the same problem as yours. It wasn’t long after stocking red ears we no longer saw them in our fish.

I think he’s talking about the fish itself. Also called bullhead, pollywog, mudcat. Great for live or cut bait for larger catfish.

Anyone know of the name of the parasite? Can turtles get this ?