The native bearded catfish, often referred to as the bearded catfish, is commonly known as the pond louse fish and the pond hornfish.

The bearded catfish has an extended body with a laterally flattened rear and a sloping flat back. The head is large, the tail is small, and the mouth is slightly inferior. Tentacles four pairs, quite developed. The body surface is naked and scale-less, tawny, with fine white dots on the side of the body, light-colored etiolated lines on the back, and its underbelly is light gray or white.

The bearded catfish is a benthic fish, very adaptable to the environment, in all types of freshwater waters can survive. There are hidden in the cave in the habit of gathering, because of its fear of bright light, often dozens of tails and even more gathered in a cave, forming the so-called "pond lice hole", night activities out of the four for food. The auxiliary respiratory organs on the gills are well developed, and they utilize the oxygen in the air in a moist environment. Its body surface is rich in mucus, the skin also has a respiratory function, as long as the body surface is kept moist, leave the water for a few days can still survive. In the south of China, the distribution of bearded catfish is extremely wide.

The bearded catfish is an omnivorous fish that feeds mainly on animal food. Artificial breeding, you can use small mixed fish, livestock and poultry carcasses and meat processing plant scraps, can also be fed soybean cake, peanut cake and other plant-based feed. Artificial earthworms, fly maggots is also a way to solve the bearded catfish feed. Bearded catfish breeding conditions require very low, where there is water, regardless of the size of the area, even in front of the house behind the small pits, and even with the water tanks and pots can be raised. Local bearded catfish individual is small, generally the year the fry breeding 3 to 4 months, can grow to 100 grams. Because it can be densely cultivated, so the production is very high.