catfish

catfish, common name applied to members of the freshwater fish families constituting the suborder Nematognathi. The catfish is related to the sucker and the minnow, and like them has a complex set of bones forming a sensitive hearing apparatus. Catfish are named for the barbels ("whiskers") around their mouths and have scaleless skins, fleshy, rayless posterior fins, and sharp defensive spines in the shoulder and dorsal fins. They are able to use the swim bladder to produce sounds. Some species, such as the stone and tadpole catfishes and the madtom, can inflict stings by means of poison glands in the pectoral spines. Catfish are usually dull-colored, though the madtoms of E North American streams are brightly patterned. Members of most madtom species are no more than 5 in. (12.7 cm) long; some are less than 2 in. (5 cm) long. Danube catfish called wels, or sheatfish, reach a length of 13 ft (4 m) and a weight of 400 lb (180 kg), while the Mekong giant catfish can reach 10 ft (3 m) and 550 lb (250 kg). Catfish are omnivorous feeders and are valuable scavengers.

Types of Catfish

The South American catfishes show great diversity: There are small, delicate species armored with bony plates; parasitic types that live in the gills of other fish; and one catfish of the E Andes in which the pelvic fins are modified into suckers that enable it to cling to rocks. African species include the electric fish and the Nile catfish, which swims upside down to feed at the water's surface and has a white back and a dark belly, the reverse of the normal coloration.

Of the 30 American species the largest and most important is the blue, or Mississippi, catfish, an excellent food fish weighing up to 150 lb (70 kg). Best known is the smaller channel catfish, which reaches 20 lb (9 kg) and has a deeply forked tail and slender body. The stonecat, 10 in. (25.4 cm) long, is found in clear water under logs and stones. The bullheads, or horned pouts, are catfish of muddy ponds and streams, feeding on bottom plants and animals. Bullheads have square or slightly rounded tails and may reach 1 ft (30 cm) in length and 2 lb (0.9 kg) in weight. The black, yellow, and brown bullhead species are common in the waters of the central and eastern states.

There are no catfish in the Pacific except the introduced white catfish. Marine catfish found during the summer in bays and harbors of the Atlantic and Gulf states include the 2-ft (61-cm) gaff-topsail catfish, named for its long, ribbonlike pectoral and dorsal fins, and the smaller sea catfish, a very common trash fish. The males of both these species carry the fertilized eggs in their mouths (and therefore do not eat) until well after the young hatch, a period of two months. In certain other species the eggs are embedded in the underside of the female. Some tropical catfish survive dry seasons by burrowing into the mud or by crawling overland in search of water.

Classification

Catfishes are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Cypriniformes, suborder Nematognathi.

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catfish

Any of about 2,500 species of scale-less, mostly freshwater, fishes (order Siluriformes) related to carp and minnows and named for their whiskerlike barbels (fleshy feelers). All species have at least one pair of barbels on the upper jaw, and some have a pair on the snout and additional pairs on the chin. Many species possess spines that may be associated with venom glands. Found almost worldwide, they are generally bottom-dwelling scavengers that feed on almost any kind of plant or animal matter. Species vary from 1.5 in. to 15 ft (4 cm–4.5 m) long and may weigh up to 660 lbs (300 kg). Many small species are popular aquarium fishes; many large species are used for food.

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catfish

1. any of numerous mainly freshwater teleost fishes having whisker-like barbels around the mouth, esp the silurids of Europe and Asia and the horned pouts of North America

2. another name for wolffish

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catfish [′kat‚fish]

(vertebrate zoology)

The common name for a number of fishes which constitute the suborder Siluroidei in the order Cypriniformes, all of which have barbels around the mouth.