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If I don't have a common name or a clue to the family name, how do I start to ID a wildcaught N. American catfish?

This guy was given to me as I walked into a fish store the other day, as in "Troi! Do you want this fish? Some guy just gave it to us along wiht some Oscars. Said he caught it last year and it was only four inched then." Yeah, I can't resist anythign in whiskers, so I took the fish. I assume the fish was caught in California, but it is possible it was in Nevada or Oregon.

It is very wide in the mouth, has four prominent white "chin whiskers," a reddish brown "moustashe" of distinction and erect nasal barbels, also reddish brown. The body of the fish is wild-fish grey, with a white belly. At a guess, the fish is nine inches and I think still young.

I will try to get a pic, but in the meantime, anyone have a clue on family?

All North American catfishes are ictalurids.

[quote="Silurus"]All North American catfishes are ictalurids.[/quote]

Thanks. I tried a google search with "ictalurids" and did a bit better. This guy is in the wrong place and probably is the wrong size to be a madtom. I am suspecting a bullhead. My darned 13 inch channel is in the pond, so I don't get to see his face much, just his huge mouth when he beats the koi to the food; I can't compare the new fish to the channel.

My first thought was channel cat, but I don't think so now. Are bullheads river or lake fish?

troi

Are bullheads river or lake fish?

Both, although they seem to prefer slower-flowing or still stretches of water.
Look at the chin barbels. If they are white, you have a yellow bullhead, if they are dark, you have a black or brown bullhead.

Silurus wrote:If they are white, you have a yellow bullhead, if they are dark, you have a black or brown bullhead.

Very white. When the pic of him arrives, I will post it for ID. Fish, who may have just gotten the name Salvador, for Dali's mustache, just hangs and curves around his flower pot, catfish fashion, and watches the people. I am afraid he has been fed live food, which we won't feed, beyound red worms. How do we switch him over to pellets? Carnavore pellets? Cat food? Bugs, of course.

troi

Just throw the pellets in and it'll eat them. Bullheads are not fussy esters.

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The fish could be a madtom. Are the adipose and caudal fins joined?