10 replies to this topic

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

I caught this little guy 2 weeks ago and he was literally the size of a tadpole and at first I thought it WAS a tadpole. Just a little under 1/2" long at the time. He's about 5/8" long now, is eating well and adjusting well in the tank. Don't think it's a Madtom but either a yellow bullhead or channel cat. Jet black with a snow white belly and lower barbels.

Never thought that a catfish could be as adorably cute as they are when tiny!

 

Chris M.

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[Matt DeLaVega]

Yellow bullhead. I saw a ball of them at a local lake this week.

[riverman1]

WOW...Awesome. Hard to tell but it looks like a full tail and not forked. It appears to me to be possibly a flat head catfish. 

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Thanks guys. I will have to agree with Matt, yellow bullhead. More research on them and the lower barbels are white while the upper are black. It also has a full tail, not forked. It could be a flathead, but it falls more in line with a yellow bullhead. It's become a very active fish as of lately. Not sure if cats ever adapt to daytime life or not.

 

Chris M.

[Chasmodes]

Cute 'lil kitty!

[Doug_Dame]

I've had some madtoms that were periodically active in the daytime. Especially when food was in the water! Gotta wake up & get up in the flow & battle with the minners in the chow line!

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

He sure is a cute little guy. He goes nuts once the Mysis shrimp hit the water. Once done, he hides for a bit, but he seems pretty active during the daytime. Right now he contends with 7 darters and a 1" baby sunfish.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Yellow bullhead.

 

2 years later....

 

Happily, he's living in a tank in Indiana and doing well last I checked, and MUCH bigger.

 

Tonight I set up my bigger tank, went to the river and caught a few more fish for my tank. I ended up with (2) 1"  stonecat madtoms, (2) male banded darters and some tiny shiner fry for my sunfish. Getting wet to catch your own tank fish is so rewarding!

 

Happy, safe and legal collecting.

 

The Grumpy Old Man.

[Chasmodes]

Getting wet to catch your own tank fish is so rewarding!

 

Absolutely true!  Just don't let your fancy smart phone get wet with you (speaking from experience now LOL).

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Yeah, I know. But splashing around is SO much fun, UNTIL it costs you $1,000 to replace that phone. I have a $235 Motorola pay-as-you-go phone. It does what I need it to do, but.... it's getting to the point where I need unlimited data usage. Perhaps, methinks, that the SMART person leaves the phone in the car and simply enjoys the river experience. But then again... How do you take pictures of your catches.... NEVER had this problem as a kid in the 70s.  

 

The Grumpy Old Man.

[Chasmodes]

In my case, I got lazy and instead of bringing my waterproof Olympus camera, I stuck my iPhone in my wader pocket that I thought was waterproof...it wasn't LOL.  The waterproof pocket was inside my waders.  DOH!