Catfish Species Identification -
The current world record blue cat weighs pounds. To some, Flathead catfish Pylodictis olivaris are the ugliest fish in North America; to others, they are beautiful giants with unique colors and patterns.
The elusiveness of the large catfish can make the catch even more rewarding for anglers who pursue these fish. Flathead catfish are the second largest catfish in North America. Typically found in turbid rivers, these fish like the deeper holes of the river. Their aggressive feeding behavior and ferocious appetites can make landing this fish a fun and difficult challenge.
The current world record for flathead catfish is pounds. When identifying catfish, there are several things to look for, whether out on the water or on your next visit to the aquarium. White Catfish Ameiurus catus , sometimes referred to as white bullheads, are found on the eastern side of the United States from about Florida to New York.
The preferred habitat of the white catfish is calm coves and slow-moving water in rivers. White catfish will reach about 16 inches in length, with some reaching up to 24 inches in size. The white catfish is sometimes confused with the channel catfish. Anglers should use the mouth, anal rays, and the eye as a way to identify the fish if fishing in areas where both species are present.
The upper jaw on a white catfish will extend farther than the lower jaw, the anal fin will have rays, and the eye will contain a blue ring that encompasses the pupil.
Black Bullhead Ameiurus melas are commonly found throughout North America. Their native range is from Southern Ontario to northern Mexico, and they can be found as far west as Montana and as far east as New York.
The preferred habitat for black bullheads is turbid areas where there is slow to no moving water in lakes, streams, or rivers. The black bullhead can be confused with yellow or brown bullhead.
To identify black bullhead, anglers should look at the color, mouth, anal rays, and caudal fin. The coloration of black bullheads can be slightly confusing because most adults are yellowish-brown or dark green. Younger black bullheads will appear black in color, and this is only during the spawn.
Looking at the anal fin of black bullhead, anglers will find anal rays. In looking at the caudal fin, anglers will see a fin with rounded edges that is slightly notched but not forked. The mouth orientation of the black bullhead has the upper jaw extending farther than the lower jaw.
The average size of black bullheads is about 16 inches, with anglers catching black bullheads up to 24 inches in size.
Yellow bullheads Ameiurus natalis , sometimes called chuckle-head or white-whisker bullheads, are found in the central and eastern parts of the United States. The preferred habitat of yellow bullheads is rivers, streams, and lakes with some current and is slightly turbid to clear in color.
Yellow bullheads are sometimes confused with brown bullheads. To identify yellow bullhead, anglers should use the barbels, mouth orientation, anal fin, caudal fin, and color to aid in identification.
The barbells on yellow bullheads are different from black or brown bullheads because they are white, whereas the other bullheads have dark-colored barbels. When looking at the mouth of a yellow bullhead, the upper jaw will extend past the lower jaw.
Looking at the anal fin, there will be rays present. The caudal fin will be smooth or slightly rounded with no notch or forks to the tail. The coloration of yellow bullheads will range from a yellowish brown to dark brown. The average size of yellow bullheads is about 12 inches, with some getting up to 17 inches in size.
Hardhead catfish Ariopsis felis , sometimes called steelhead catfish or sea catfish, are found along most of the eastern coast and into the Gulf of Mexico. The hardhead catfish is the bait stealer or the trash catfish to coastal anglers.
Hardheads are notorious for gulping their food rather than biting, which allows them to abscond with bait more easily than other fish. Hardheads are easy to identify compared to gafftop catfish. The easiest way to distinguish between the two species is by looking at the dorsal fin, anal fins, and color of the two fish.
The dorsal fin on a hardhead will come to a point and not extend toward the anal or adipose fin. The anal fin of a hardhead catfish will contain rays. The coloration of a hardhead will range from greenish to light grey with a whitish belly.
The typical size for a hard head is about 16 inches in length, and it can weigh up to 12 pounds at the largest sizes. Gafftopsail catfish Bagre marinus , often called gafftops, are found on the east coast of North America, the Gulf of Mexico, and the east coast of South America.
The gafftopsail catfish is commonly caught among coastal anglers but is often confused with hardheads. To identify the gafftopsail catfish, anglers should look at the dorsal fin, anal fin, and color. The gafftopsail catfish dorsal fin is distinguished in that the fin looks ribbon-like at the tip and extends farther toward the anal and adipose fins.
Gafftopsail catfish anal fin will contain anal rays, as where the hardhead catfish will have fewer. They have a forked tail with a straight anal fin consisting of around rays. The blue catfish are pretty easy to spot, as they do not have any marks on their bodies, unlike other catfish with prominent white bellies.
Their size ranges from 30 to 40 lbs and can exceed pounds in some species. These catfish natively dwell in Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers and serve as an excellent food source. They are also powerful due to their heavy body structure and can put up a great fight with their opponent.
Accordingly, they are a popular game fish for anglers. The flathead catfish Pylodictis olivares are mottled brown, black, and pale yellow, with beige bellies. Unlike blue catfish, flatheads do not consist of a forked tail but have a short, round anal fin with less than 30 rays.
As their name suggests, the flathead catfish have flattened heads, with their jaws often protruding outwards.
They mostly have smooth bodies with no fins and cat-like whiskers near the mouth. These types of catfish commonly dwell on deep surfaces with slow and steady currents and muddy waters where people will go noodling to catch them.
A post shared by Black Folks Fishing blackfolksfish. Channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus have an elongated, slender body and are primarily brown or dark olive with gray and bluish hues and white bellies.
Like blue catfish, these fish also have a forked tail but rays on the anal fin. However, the most distinguishing of the channel catfish distinctive is the presence of black spots along their entire length.
They live on hunting plants, insects, mussels, fish, and crustaceans. Channel fish are the most active at night when they come out to hunt in the dark because of their extreme sense of smell.
They are mostly found in freshwater environments like rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and large streams. The bullheads Ameiurus melas abundantly inhabit the native freshwaters across the United States and Canada, from Texas to Ontario.
They are one of the most commonly occurring catfish, with the distinctive feature of having whiskers or barbels near the mouth and no forked tails. There are three common types of bullheads, black, brown, and yellow bullheads. Like channel catfish, the bullhead catfish also dwell in fresh river and lake waters.
A post shared by CrankBaitKev crankbaitkev. They make an excellent source of food and have an average size of 3 lbs and less than 1 foot. The largest freshwater fish , wels catfish Silurus glanis , are natively found in southern, eastern, and central Europe, in the Black Sea and Capsian basins.
It is easy to spot wels catfish, as they have a large, spotless body, a broad flat head, with a big mouth. These catfish have small teeth inside their mouths, with two whiskers on the upper jaw and four on the lower jaws.
Lower barbels are non pigmented in juvenile fish but slowly become darker gray in coloration. Barbels on the side of the mouth will be black to dark gray in color. None of the barbels contain spines and are harmless, they primarily serve as sense organs for locating food.
Channel catfish have single spines on the dorsal and pectoral fins. The pectoral fin spines are serrated along the backside of the spine. The tips are extremely sharp on juvenile fish and become blunt in older fish.
The dorsal fin will contain the single spine and 6 to 7 soft rays. The pectoral fins will have a single spine and 7 to 9 soft rays.
The anal fin of channel catfish are elongated and pigmented. They contain 27 to 29 soft rays and end in a rounded edge.
Pelvic fins will have 8 to 9 soft rays and one spine. The adipose fin of channel catfish is small in size and found just before the caudal peduncle. The adipose fin has no rays or spines and is fat filled. The tail of the channel catfish will be dark pigmented, with a noticeable forked appearance.
The color of the channel catfish will vary throughout their lives and can be affected by water clarity, water color, depth, time or year, age, sexual maturity, and individual sex. The back and head of channel catfish can be pale blue, olive, brown, black, or gray.
Their coloration will typically lighten down the body and become white to dusky gray on the stomach. The lateral line can be evident as a straight line from behind the gills to the base of the caudal tail.
Channel catfish may have black spots that develop as fingerlings and become absent with age. The fins of juvenile fish will have a distinct black margin on the tips that also fade with age. To most easily identify channel catfish from blue catfish, use the anal fin. It is rounded in shape in channel cat and has a squared-edged for blue catfish.
Blue catfish will have 30 to 36 rays on the anal fin while channel catfish have 27 to 29 rays. To most easily identify channel catfish from the bullhead and flathead catfish, use the caudal tail.
The channel catfish has a forked tail while bullhead and flathead catfish will have a non forked square or rounded tail. Channel catfish are native to North America, primarily the Gulf states and the Mississippi and Missouri River basins.
Their home range extended north throughout the Great Lakes and into southern Quebec and Manitoba. To the west channel catfish could be found in Montana and Wyoming but not west of the Rocky Mountains.
To the south they stretched into northern Mexico and along the entire US portion of the Gulf of Mexico. It is debated where their eastern boundary was found but most continue to support that the channel catfish did not reach the Atlantic coast, except in Florida and Georgia.
Channel catfish can now be found throughout the contiguous United States, Canada, Mexico. The popularity of channel catfish in aquaculture has led to their expansion well beyond North America.
They have been established in over 25 countries including Nigeria, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Panama, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Fiji, Brazil, and even the US Hawaiian islands. Channel catfish are crevice, hole, or cave spawners. The male channel catfish will select or build a nest in a secluded dark area.
Nesting sites could include undercut banks, in or under logs, under rocks, in tires, or even in buckets. Channel catfish may spawn directly on the bottom out of a cavity if they are within a highly turbid fishery.
To prepare the nest the male channel catfish will fan its tail and push water into the crevice, removing silt and exposing the hard bottom. When the nest is completed the male attracts a female, during this time other males may challenge him for the spawning location, causing male channel catfish to exhibit head wounds or scars during spawning season.
When a female enters the nest the pair will spawn for up to 6 hours. During this time multiple short duration egg and fertilization attempts are made. A female will eventually deposit all of her egg mass which could be 2, to 4, eggs per pound of body weight.
Immediately after spawning concludes the male will push the female from the spawning bed and begin aerating the eggs using his fins. At this point the male is extremely aggressive to anything entering the spawning bed and fights off all intruders.
The fertilized eggs are yellow,. The eggs hatch in 3 to 10 days depending on water temperature. Once hatched, channel catfish fry will spend the first 2 to 5 days absorbing their yolk sac. The fry will then make a long swim up to the surface to fill their swim bladders with air.
Fry will then live in large schools in shallow water with abundant cover. During this time the fry are vulnerable to predation and survival rates are much lower in clear waters with high visibility. Growth in reservoirs depends highly on the location of the fishery, fertility, temperature, and competition.
First year growth can range from 3 to 6 inches, with an additional 2 to 3 inches of growth per year. Males mature at 12 inches in length which could take 2 to 3 years, females mature later at 14 inches and 3 to 5 years.
Sexual dimorphism can be found at 6 months but becomes more evident during spawning season. Males will develop heads that are wider than their body, and have swollen cranial muscles behind their eyes. Female heads will be more narrow than their body and will be smooth in shape.
In aquaculture facilities, 3, to 5, pounds of channel catfish can be raised and harvested per acre per year.
Channel catfish live 6 to 10 years in the southern parts of their range and years in the north parts. The oldest channel catfish found in scientific research is a 40 year old fish from Canada found in the Handbook of Freshwater Fishery Biology , Kenneth Carlander
Catfish are Cattfish uniquely Catfish Species Identification species with Idehtification weights, sizes big and little Idnetification, and personalities. Use this article as a Paleo diet and energy levels for everything Icentification need to know Metabolic rate optimization these seventeen types of catfish. Iddentification of catfish can be found on every continent except Antarctica and found in both freshwater and marine environments. Along with being a fun find in nature, aquarium keepers also love catfish for their diversity and fun personalities. Catfish are bottom feeders and are all similarly shaped, despite size differences, and are most active at night. One of the unique characteristics of the catfish is that their skin is smooth with no scales.Video
How 'Devil Fish' Invaded North America. Could Pet Treats Be The Solution? - True Cost - Insider NewsCatfish Species Identification -
First year growth can range from 3 to 6 inches, with an additional 2 to 3 inches of growth per year. Males mature at 12 inches in length which could take 2 to 3 years, females mature later at 14 inches and 3 to 5 years. Sexual dimorphism can be found at 6 months but becomes more evident during spawning season.
Males will develop heads that are wider than their body, and have swollen cranial muscles behind their eyes. Female heads will be more narrow than their body and will be smooth in shape. In aquaculture facilities, 3, to 5, pounds of channel catfish can be raised and harvested per acre per year.
Channel catfish live 6 to 10 years in the southern parts of their range and years in the north parts. The oldest channel catfish found in scientific research is a 40 year old fish from Canada found in the Handbook of Freshwater Fishery Biology , Kenneth Carlander Catfish not only have taste receptors on their barbels but also throughout their entire body.
These taste receptors allow catfish to locate food items from far distances in low to no visibility. Due to their mouth location they must feed on the surface in a fairly vertical position or expose their heads above the water to vacuum food off the surface.
If you have ever fished for channel catfish , you know they will feed on all types of bait , they are highly omnivores in all stages of their lives.
As juveniles they feed on benthic material like detritus, zooplankton, and aquatic invertebrates. As channel catfish grow their diet incorporates aquatic vegetation and terrestrial invertebrates.
At 10 inches in length they incorporate fish such as minnows and crayfish. Adult channel catfish can be found and adapt to almost all habitats in reservoirs, ponds, rivers, creeks, or even brackish marshes.
In reservoirs throughout the day they prefer deeper cooler water moving to shallow water to feed at dusk and overnight.
Often they can be found near rip rap rock, above or below water control gates, at standing timber, and around emergent vegetation.
They commonly can be found at the base of trees with roosting birds. In water with current they will often be found in deeper pools or behind current breaks. Water quality can be a limiting factor to channel catfish abundance. Their growth slows at dissolved oxygen of 4 ppm, they avoid dissolved oxygen below this level and will experience widespread fish kills at 1 ppm.
They prefer a neutral pH and a salinity below 5 ppt. Today, through stocking programs, expanded range, and harvest regulations, channel catfish are relatively stable and experience only fishery-specific population issues. Significant flooding events, severe drought, loss of river connectivity, siltation, and increase in reservoir fertility can cause substantial shifts in forage availability, egg survival, and migration that limit the reproductive success of channel catfish.
These events over extended periods can lead to less spawning and species abundance. Due to the lack of scales on the catfish body many parasites and bacterial infections can impact individuals, especially in aquatic environments.
One common parasite is Ichthyophthirius multifiliis or ich. This is a protozoan that can be just below the surface of the skin and has a white salt like appearance. It is also a common aquarium parasite treated by increasing salinity and temperature.
Another common disease for channel catfish is winter catfish disease, winter catfish syndrome, or winter saprolegniosis. This is often noted in northern fisheries covered in ice for long periods of time but can occur in southern reaches of their range. The Saprolegnia fungus is often associated with skin lesions, loss of mucus, and sunken eyes.
Its onset appears to be due to rapid temperature drops followed by extended cold duration periods. While at Tarleton, Bardin worked for Harrell Arms at Arms Fish Farm and Bait Company. In he founded Texas Pro Lake Management. He strives every day to take a scientific approach to helping his clients maximize the production of their fisheries.
Outside of TPLM Bardin has written for Wired2Fish, taught as an adjunct professor for Tarleton State University, and served as an instructor and camp coordinator for Bass Brigade youth leadership camp. In , Bardin helped Major League Fishing found their Fisheries Management Division and leads their conservation efforts today.
Bardin is a member of Texas Aquatic Plant Management Society, Texas Chapter of American Fisheries Society, Southern Division of American Fisheries Society, Society of Lake Management Professionals, Texas Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame Board, Texas Brigades Board, Texas Freshwater Fisheries Advisory Committee, and the Major League Fishing Anglers Association Board.
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How to identify a Channel Catfish The distinctive Channel catfish can often be recognized at a glance by its deeply forked tail and spots on the body. Where to catch Channel Catfish The Channel catfish is currently distributed through most of the U.
The following list includes places where you can catch Channel catfish: Gradual Shores Inlets and Outlets Piers, Docks and Pilings Spring Holes Walkways and Bridges Holes Open Water Shoreline Shallows Sunken Objects Freshwater Weed Beds. how to catch Channel Catfish The Channel catfish feed mainly on crayfish, fishes, and insects generally at night in swifter moving currents.
The following are fishing methods you can use to catch channel catfish: Drift Fishing Still Fishing. Find Channel Catfish View Map. Yellow Perch Fishing Winter Tips Read More.
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Blue catfish, channel catfish, Spcies flathead catfish Cqtfish the three primary species of catfish in the Catfisj States. Catfish Species Identification are also the most sought-after species. Identificagion rivers Catfish Species Identification and Weight gain methods and the United States have populations of at least one of these species of catfish. This is a summary of basic catfish species information for the blue, channel, and flathead catfish. We also include some of their basic behaviors and habitats. Understanding the different catfish species and their different behaviors essential to being a successful catfish angler. Other Names.
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