Blue Channel Cats vs Albino Channel Cats

[brianfl]

I use a 55 gal for a grow out tank for my pond. Since I have some fairly large fish in the pond (24" Giraffe Cat, couple of 18" Pacus, 16" Black Shark, 16" Common Pl*co and few others over 12"). A few months ago I purchased 4 channel cats (about 1") they grew quickly and within a month or so were ready for the pond. So, about 10 days ago, I picked up a couple of albino channel cats. They don't seem to be growing nearly as fast especially the girth, they seem to stay much thinner and are a lot less active, they prefer to stay in one area of the tank most of the time while the regular blue channels were very active. They are in with 4 common pl*cos and a couple of pink gouramis. There doesn't seem to be any chasing or territorial disputes, unlike with the blues.

Does this seem normal? They just seem so much different than the blue channel cats were. I did get them from a different source, an lfs that I trust a lot.

One of the ponds is 4000 gal, the other about 1500.

[Ron]

They don't seem to be growing nearly as fast especially the girth, they seem to stay much thinner and are a lot less active

Albino species are often much more prone to problems (weaker to begin with) than their normal, more natural counterparts.