Just wondering if anyone considers these guys North American natives.The info at palnet catfish says" Pacific rivers from Southern California down to Colombia." in the distribution discription.

http://www.planetcat...?species_id=700

I don't see why not...?

If they can be found in Canada, U.S., Mexico and Central America -- then are they not North American natives?

Any animal that is within it's natural distribution or potential natural distribution without anthropogenic involvement is considered to be a Native animal. In our case in referring to North American Native animals, we define that as fish within their natural distribution on the North American continent...Note however that some "native" fish can be considered exotics and not Native at all. An example being Largemouth bass in California. These fish where never there and where introduced through anthropogenic intervention.

Therefore.. Yes they are Native if the distribution data that PC.com used is correct and they where not introduced

Fishbase gives the distribution as including Mexico, but there's no records that I can find from the State of California. It's thus likely that there was a "Baja" in the locality info the Planet Catfish used that got lost somewhere along the way...

Also, you might be interested in this notice (below) that came across my desk this morning...

cheers,
Dave

-----------
FERRARIS, CARL J., JR. 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil
(Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types.
Zootaxa, 1418: 1-628.

8 March 2007 ISBN 978-1-86977-058-7 (hardback)

A PDF of this paper can be downloaded from the Zootaxa web site, in two
parts, as follows:
http://www.mapress.c...zt01418p300.pdf [pp. 1-300; 2.1 MB]
http://www.mapress.c...zt01418p628.pdf [pp.301-628; 2.7 MB]

Or, it may be downloaded from the ACSI web site, as a single file (5.0 MB)
at either of the following:
http://silurus.acnat.../whats_new.html
http://silurus.acnat...rary/index.html

FERRARIS, CARL J., JR. 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil
(Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types.
Zootaxa, 1418: 1-628.

Wow.... thanks for that link Dave, somehow that new addition escaped me on the ACSI site and I use it at least once a week..

http://www.nanfa.org...diversity.shtml
-There's a definition of native fish

I had a pair of these for a long time. They get quite big. They would often swim up the vertical pane of glass against the water current. Be careful who you put in there, they will eat anything small. I liked them a lot.