Catfish (nián) or catfish and catfish. A general term for Siluriformes fishes.

Local names of zhan: mackerel, blue and white fish, oily fish, mackerel and herring. Morphological characteristics: the body is thick and slightly flat, spindle-shaped, generally 20 ~ 40 cm long and weighs150 ~ 400 g. The head is big, the front end is tapered like a cone, and the eyes are big and high.

Basic introduction

Catfish are closely related to fat carp, carp and minnow (〔Cypriniformes〕), and they can all belong to Ostariophysi. Another classification system classifies them as Siluroidea and Cyprinoidea of Cypriniformes (or 〔Ostariophysi〕).

Catfish is also known as anchovy, larval fish, bearded catfish, catfish Balang, catfish kidnapper and wazi. Catfish live in the middle and lower layers of rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and mostly inhabit the bottom layer with overgrown aquatic plants and slow water flow. It is hidden during the day and very active at night, and it is used to swimming to shallow water for food. After autumn, they live in deep water or sludge for the winter. It is a carnivorous benthic fish, often crouching at the bottom of the water covered with weeds, waiting for small fish to approach and swallow with their mouths open, and also eating shrimps and aquatic insects.

Appearance characteristics

Catfish is commonly known as catfish because it has long whiskers around its mouth and is very similar to the hair touching the tip of a cat's kiss. There are at least one pair of whiskers on the palate, one pair on the snout and another pair on the chin. Many catfish have hard spines in the front of dorsal fin and pectoral fin, which are connected with poisonous glands and sting people very much. The body is smooth or without scales, and there are about 2,500 species of catfish in 30 families. Most of them live in fresh water, but a few species belong to Ariidae and Plotosidae, which live in seawater. Freshwater catfish are almost all over the world, and can survive in slow-flowing or still water bodies or fast-flowing mountain streams; Marine catfish are distributed in tropical offshore waters. Generally benthic, like nocturnal activities. Mostly scavengers. Feeding on almost any animal or plant. Eggs are laid, but they show concern for their offspring in various forms. For example, Ictalurus nebulosus can build nests, protect nests and protect young fish, while male catfish carry eggs and young fish the size of glass balls in their mouths.