3 replies to this topic

[Betta132]

I went scuba diving yesterday, on a lake frequented by party barges. Some ducks turned up to see if we had food, and I tossed a few chips to them. Yes, I know chips aren't great duck food, but I'm told they get fed by every party barge that moors there. Chips are probably far from the worst food they've been given. A bunch of shiners and a few sunfish had also appeared, presumably to skulk around in the shadow cast by the boat, and they got pretty excited when they smelled the chips. 

And then this boy darted out from under the boat. 

There were two foot-long bullheads zooming around next to the boat within two minutes of the first chip hitting the water, and it only took them about thirty seconds to get up the courage to come get the chips from the surface, even with me leaning over the side of the boat. Evidently cheddar chips are pretty good fish attractant. I'm pretty sure I saw either some carp after about five minutes, too, though they saw us and darted away. The catfish stuck around until all the chips were gone. 

Out of curiosity, what kind of bullhead is that? 

[Matt DeLaVega]

It looks like a channel catfish to me. Size is also an indicator. A 2 foot long bullhead is pretty rare. Notice the strongly forked tail.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Guess white catfish is a possibility. Not sure if they are in your area or not, I have never seen one in life. They are in the same genus as bullheads, have a more forked tail, and look a bit more like a channel catfish. Never mind, white catfish should not be there. Also look at the rounded anal fin. That helps differentiate channel catfish from blue catfish which have a much more straight edged anal fin. Google them both and you will see the difference in the anal fin. Also look at a bullhead caudal fin vs. channel caudal. 

 

Looks like fun.

[Betta132]

I meant two catfish that were a foot long each. My bad. 

Did a little bit of research, and it does look like a channel. It actually looks a lot like a white, but their range is a few states away from here, so that seems unlikely. 

Good to know that it's a bigger species than a bullhead. That could be useful in future, because now I know that there are fish in that lake big enough to swallow my hand. I'll add that to my list of critters to be aware of while diving. I'm not assuming a catfish is going to attack my hand, of course, but I'm thinking of bringing a few pieces of table shrimp on the next dive to see if I can lure fish closer for better photos. I got a glimpse of a really pretty brown-and-black mottled catfish, but it darted off before I could get a good look.

Edited by Betta132, 22 July 2015 - 09:22 PM.