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

Zhan's local names: mackerel, blue and white fish, oily fish, mackerel and herring. Morphological characteristics: the body thickness is slightly flat, spindle-shaped, generally 20 ~ 40 cm long, weighing 150 ~ 400 g, the head is big, the front end is tapered, and the eyes are big and high.

Basic introduction

Catfish are closely related to fat carp, carp and minnows (1230: Cypriniformes), and all of them can be classified as Ostariophysi. Another classification system classifies them into Silurus and CYPRINIDAE of CYPRINIDAE.

Catfish is also known as anchovies, larvae, bearded catfish, catfish Balang, catfish kidnapper and wretched. 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. Hidden during the day, very active at night, used to swim to shallow water for food. After autumn, they live in deep water or mud for the winter. It is a carnivorous benthic fish, often crouching at the bottom full of weeds, waiting for small fish to approach and swallow with their mouths open, and also eating shrimp and aquatic insects.

Appearance characteristics

Catfish is commonly known as catfish because it has a long beard around its mouth, which is very similar to the hair on the tip of a cat's kiss. The palate has at least one pair of beards, one on the snout and the other on the chin. Many catfish have hard spines on the dorsal fin and the front of pectoral fin, which are connected with poisonous glands and are very stinging. The body is smooth or scaleless, and there are about 2500 species of catfish in 30 families. Most of them live in fresh water, but there are also a few species belonging to the family ichthyidae and ichthyidae, which live in seawater. Freshwater catfish are almost all over the world and can survive in slow-moving or static water bodies or fast-moving mountain streams; Marine catfish are distributed in tropical offshore waters. Generally benthic, like nocturnal activities. Mostly scavengers. Feed 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 young fish the size of eggs and glass balls are held in the mouth of males.