


It has no scales, it has whiskers around the mouth and long sharp spores on the back and sides. Adult channel catfish are omnivorous they feed on insects, mussels, fish, plants, etc., channel catfish reach sexual maturity in 3 to 6 years.įlathead catfish: These are also called pied cat, App, opelousa catfish, yellow cat, Appaloosa catfish, etc., as their names imply they have a flat head. The eggs are guarded by the male channel catfish at the bottom of the nest. Because of their coloring, they are often confused by inexperienced anglers with the flathead catfish, they also have a protruding upper jaw.Ĭhannel fish has an olive-brown to slate in color and with shades of blue and grey at times on its sides. They have a deeply forked tail similar to bluefish but the colouring is much different than that of a blue catfish. They are mostly found in rivers, lakes, large streams and reservoirs with low or moderate current. They can be caught in very deep or shallow water depending on the time of the year.Ĭhannel Catfish: These typically spawn in late spring and early summer when water temperature reach 75 degrees. Blue catfish are considered scavengers and predator fish, they are fast growers and have a life span between 20 to 30 years. The egg gets hatched in a week and is guarded by the male for about a week at the nest site then they swim away to be on their own. They live in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, etc. They have white bellies, very easy to spot. It is unspotted, slate grey on the upper sides and back. Like the channel fish, the bluefish is considered an excellent fish. They tend to move upstream in summer in search of cooler temperature and downstream in the winter in order to find warmer water. Blue catfish are primarily large river fish, occurring in main channels, river systems. The number of rays in the anal fin is typically 30-35 and colouration is usually slate blue on the back, shading to white on the belly. This one involves an exchange of gases through the skin.Īs a defense, the catfish uses a pair of these spines that may be locked into place so that they stick outwards, which can inflict severe wounds.īlue catfish (lctalurus furcatus), has a forked tail and is sometimes very similar to channel catfish. This is a type of respiration that is different from the one that takes place in gills.
DOES A CATFISH HAVE A BACKBONE SKIN
In some species, the mucus-covered skin is used in cutaneous respiration. It is known that catfish do not have scales their bodies are often naked. They also have external spines near their fins. A Catfish is a distinctive type of fish that has whiskers protruding from the area around the mouth. There are many species of fish, we will be talking about a special kind of fish…Ĭatfish (Order Siluriformers) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. The fins are supported by horny or bony rays and are covered in the skin without scales. Fishes such as catfish have another fleshy lobe behind the dorsal fin, called an adipose (fat) fin. They are either single fins along the centerline of the fish, such as the dorsal (back) fins, caudal (tail) fin, and anal fin, or paired fins, which include the pectoral (chest) and pelvic (hip) fins. A fish flaps its tail to swim in the water, instead of legs they have fins to help them stay upright and steer.įins are appendages used by the fish to maintain its position, move, steer and stop. “vertebrate” means they have a skeleton with a spine. A Fish is a cold-blooded animal that has fins and a backbone, it is a scaly-skinned vertebrate that swims in water and breathes using gills.
