So got some minnows, perch, channel catfish, and blue catfishes. Then saw some they went new fish not stocked. Looks like mudcats to me. What do you Know?
Welcome to the forum. That could be a blue. Count the anal fin rays, there should be 30-36. But the tail should have a deeper fork in it. Hard to tell from just one picture.
That sure looks like a specie of bullhead not a catfish. Forked tail is missing although the flatheads do have a more square tail compared to blues and channels. You should compare it to the other blue catfish that were stocked. Did all the blues that were delivered look like that??? Where did you buy them?
Last edited by Bill Cody; 10/28/2407:11 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
Hi thanks for talking. I got the channel and blues at a good biologist and I looked at the v tails and they are not like these. The tail in the picture is the same for all of these and I am pretty certain they are bullhead. I have been tossing all I see and leave the blues and channels. Have probably thrown hundreds of little ones. Minnow torpedoes working good to catch them. The catfish stocked are 6-12” so they are easily seen between them
I believe "mudcat" is an informal name in some parts of the country for a flathead catfish?
That is definitely NOT a flathead. They usually have 12 rays in the anal fin. That fin is not spread out in your picture, but it looks like more than 12. The tail is also wrong, and the barely visible bits of the dorsal physiology look wrong.
I think that is a bullhead, but lots of others on the forum are much better at fish identification than I am!
IF they are bullheads, AND you do not intentionally want bullheads in your pond (most people don't), then you should definitely not add them to your pond (if they are still in fish cages, etc.)
In my experience, a young blue cat is very similar to a young channel cat.
That picture looks like a bullhead to me. Maybe a yellow or brown bullhead.
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
I believe "mudcat" is an informal name in some parts of the country for a flathead catfish?
That is definitely NOT a flathead. They usually have 12 rays in the anal fin. That fin is not spread out in your picture, but it looks like more than 12. The tail is also wrong, and the barely visible bits of the dorsal physiology look wrong.
I think that is a bullhead, but lots of others on the forum are much better at fish identification than I am!
IF they are bullheads, AND you do not intentionally want bullheads in your pond (most people don't), then you should definitely not add them to your pond (if they are still in fish cages, etc.)
Of course, I have heard lots of people call BG, "perch"!
I am pretty sure that I have wrongly called longear sunfish, "pumpkinseeds" most of my life - since that is what my father called them when I was just a wee lad!
In identifying the young flathead catfish and because the tail is not deeply notched one has to be careful to also look for the lower jaw that is projecting beyond the upper jaw. Even small flatheads will have this feature. See pick.
This is important. The flathead catfish is the only North American catfish species whose lower jaw is longer than the upper jaw. Their head is flattened between the eyes and they have a very large mouth. This is also the only large catfish with a "squarish" tail. https://tm.americancatfishingassociation.com/content.php?id=16
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/catfish/ Flathead - The head is broadly flattened, with a projecting lower jaw. The tail fin is only slightly notched, not deeply forked as is the case with blue and channel catfish. Young fish may be very dark, almost black in appearance.
