This list is comprised of contact information for catfish experts within the LSU Agricultural Center and the LSU - Baton Rouge campus.

It is important to purchase the best available catfish fingerlings when stocking commercial production ponds. Poor quality can result in delayed harvesting, underestimated stocking weights and disease transmission to fish already present in the pond. Fingerling quality is judged on grading, strain, health, and the supplier's reliability.

Proper design and construction of ponds is critical to the success of a commercial catfish operation. Well-designed ponds, constructed on soil with proper clay content and adequate water supply, have a useful life of at least 10 years.

Considerable thought and planning should go into selecting sites for commercial fish production ponds. Construction costs, ease and cost of operation, and productivity can be greatly affected by the site selected.

To be profitable, an aquaculture pond must be sited properly and designed for efficiency. An inaccessible location, leaks in the pond, poor seining conditions, or lack of good quality water will doom an aquaculture enterprise to failure.

To reduce losses caused by hungry birds, aquaculture farmers spend as much as $100,000 a year on abatement programs. Now, two LSU AgCenter agricultural engineers have developed robotic boats to keep these predators out of commercial ponds.

Nine aquaculture research projects recently received nearly $293,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grants will be used to support research with catfish, crawfish, hybrid striped bass, alligator and freshwater drum.

Although many catfish producers rely on commercial hatcheries for fingerlings, onsite fingerling production is an important part of many operations. The tips below address channel catfish fry production in the hatchery and managing ponds for rearing fry into fingerlings.

Heavy rainfall and winter feeding tend to add up to conditions that can lead to brown blood disease in the spring. Brown blood is caused by the buildup of nitrates in ponds, which produces a result similar to carbon monoxide poisoning.