Where Can I Buy Live Catfish Babies in Pa

N AMERICAN CATFISHES

FAMILY ICTALURIDAE

FAMILY OVERVIEW

The Ictaluridae Catfish family is also known as the North American freshwater Catfishes. Of the 40 species institute n of Mexico, xiii are known to live in Pennsylvania. These include three commonly called "Bullheads" and iii called "Catfish." The rest, much smaller species, are called "Madtoms." The Yellowish and Chocolate-brown Bullheads are institute effectually the state. The Blackness Bullhead is known from a few counties in western Pennsylvania, in the Ohio River watershed. The White Catfish, Channel Catfish and Flathead Catfish are medium-sized to very big fish and are avidly sought by anglers.

The Madtoms belong to the genus Noturus. They are not as likely to be seen as often every bit the other Catfishes because of their miniature size, their secretive nature, and their rarity or scattered distribution. 2 Madtoms are endangered species in Pennsylvania and are establish simply in French Creek, in the northwest corner of the state: The Mount Madtom, which grows to just two or three inches, and the Northern Madtom, which grows to nearly four inches. The Northern Madtom is also endangered.

The Brindled Madtom is a threatened species. At the other end of the Catfish family scale are the Blue Catfish and Flathead Catfish, which tin abound to more 100 pounds and iv to five anxiety long. Catfishes are popular sport fish. Some species are raised commercially for human consumption, and the tiny ones are part of the provender base of pocket-sized fishes in their dwelling house lakes or streams. Some Madtoms are considered indicators of water quality.

GENERAL IDENTIFICATION

Catfish are scaleless, with a tough, shine pare. All species accept 8 appendages on the head called "barbels," four on the upper jaw and four on the mentum. The barbels are sometimes called "whiskers." They are fleshy, supple projections that narrow to a tip. The barbels don't inflict the notorious sting of the Catfish. That's done by the strongly developed pectoral fin spines, one on each side of the fish, and the dorsal fin. The species have variously developed poison glands at the base of operations of these spines, which tin inflict a mild to beelike sting. The Madtoms are especially known for their stinging spines.

There is disagreement among scientists whether it's the gland at the base of the spine or the membrane around the spine that has the poison. Catfish as well have a stout spine at the leading edge of the dorsal fin. On Madtoms, the adipose fin, a fleshy lobe betwixt the dorsal fin and the tail fin, is joined with the tail fin. On other Catfish, the adipose fin is separate. Some Catfish accept moderately to deeply forked tails. Albinism, which results in a whitecolored, pinkish-eyed Catfish, is known to occur.

LIFE HISTORY

Catfish spawn in leap to early on summertime. Both males and females may contribute to nest construction and care of eggs and young, simply normally that duty is just the male'due south. Nests can be in holes in river or lake banks, in the open, or under rocks and other submerged objects. The female person is clasped by the male and is stimulated to deposit a mass of glutinous eggs. The male person or both parents baby-sit the nest and protect the young for a time. Young Catfish class tight schools and dissever individually only to hibernate when they take been frightened. Adult Catfishes are almost active at night. When they are active in daytime, information technology is generally in muddy, clouded h2o. They have poor vision and use the sense of smell and the gustatory modality buds on the skin, lips and barbels to find food.

WHITE CATFISH

Ameiurus catus

SPECIES OVERVIEW

Although the White Catfish has been stocked in waters where it was non native, its original home was Atlantic Coast watersheds from the lower Hudson River in New York, south to Florida and on to Mississippi. In Pennsylvania the White Catfish's range has included the Susquehanna and Delaware River systems, and it has been introduced into parts of the Ohio River watershed. Its genus name "Ameiurus" ways "unforked caudal fins," and its species name "catus" means "cat."

IDENTIFICATION

This medium-sized Catfish has a back and upper sides that are light blue-gray to dark slate-grayness. This shades lighter, with gray or blueish markings, toward the belly, which becomes argent or yellow-white. The chin barbels are whitish. The caudal fin is somewhat forked, but the fin's lobes are not as sharply pointed as are those of the Channel Catfish, and may exist somewhat rounded, especially in older fish. The head is very broad. Young White Catfish are slender. Older fish become heavy bodied and robust-looking. The spine on each pectoral fin has a sawtoothed back edge. The anal fin has 25 or fewer rays. The maximum size for the White Catfish is near 24 inches.

HABITAT

White Catfish alive in channels, pools and backwaters in rivers or streams, mostly in sluggish electric current over mud bottoms. They get into swift water, but not as much as Channel Catfish. Of all the Catfishes, White Catfish are the nigh tolerant of salt h2o. They live in brackish bays and tidewater sections of streams. They besides alive in lakes and river impoundments. In habitat preference, White Catfish are midway between the Channel Catfish, which uses firmer bottoms and swift currents, and Bullheads, which alive in slow water over soft, silty bottoms.

LIFE HISTORY

The White Catfish's spawning habits are similar to those of the Channel Catfish, although information technology has less of a tendency to migrate when looking for a spawning site. Male White Catfish excavate a burrow nest or apply an existing hole. The sticky egg mass is deposited at that place by the female. The male briefly guards the eggs and the young. White Catfish consume some found material, but they eat mostly animal life like midge larvae and other aquatic insects, crustaceans and fish.

Yellowish BULLHEAD

Ameiurus natalis

SPECIES OVERVIEW

The North American Catfish family unit includes species known as the "Bullheads." They are the Dark-brown Bullhead, Yellow Bullhead and Black Bullhead. All are like in advent, with some anatomical differences and different coloring. The Xanthous Bullhead's natural range is the Atlantic and Gulf Declension watersheds from New York to northern United mexican states. It is also native to the St. Lawrence River and Peachy Lakes system and the Mississippi River watershed. Yellow Bullheads have also been widely stocked. Although information technology is institute in all of Pennsylvania'southward watersheds, the Xanthous Bullhead is not every bit plentiful as the Brown Bullhead.

IDENTIFICATION

Yellow Bullheads may grow 18 or 19 inches long, but most are much smaller. The back is yellow-olive to a slate-grayness, shading to a lighter yellowish-olive on the sides. The abdomen is bright-yellow or whitish. The chin barbels are white or yellow. Yellow Bullheads take a long anal fin with 24 to 27 rays. Like the Brownish Bullhead, there are v to 8 sawlike teeth on the back edges of the pectoral spines. The rear edge of the tail fin is nigh direct or rounded.

HABITAT

The Yellow Bullhead is tolerant of depression oxygen and highly silted h2o. Information technology can withstand pollution that many other fishes cannot tolerate. Xanthous Bullheads adopt backwaters and slow currents in streams and rivers. They also live in ponds and reservoirs, particularly where at that place is a mucky bottom and dense aquatic vegetation. Where logs, stumps and water weeds are removed, the number of Yellow Bullheads decreases.

LIFE HISTORY

Yellow Bullheads spawn in bound, commonly May, with both males and females helping to excavate a nest. The nest can range from a shallow depression in the muddy bottom to a two-foot-deep burrow in the stream or lake banking concern, unremarkably near protective rocks or stumps. The females produce from 1,700 to iv,300 eggs, depositing upwardly to 700 at each spawning. The care of the sticky, yellowish-white eggs and the hatched fry is the duty primarily of the male, which guards the young fish until they are about two inches long. Xanthous Bullheads are omnivores and consume aquatic insect larvae, snails, freshwater clams, crayfish, small fish and other underwater animal life, besides every bit establish material. They have an splendid sense of olfactory property, which helps them locate food in muddy h2o.

BROWN BULLHEAD

Ameiurus nebulosus

SPECIES OVERVIEW

The Brown Bullhead is the nigh widely distributed Bullhead, establish across Pennsylvania in suitable habitat. It is native to Atlantic and Gulf Coast watersheds, from eastern Canada to Alabama. It was also originally found in the Great Lakes arrangement, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi River watershed. It has also been widely introduced. Its species proper name "nebulosus" ways "clouded," referring to the fish'south mottled sides.

IDENTIFICATION

An xviii-inch and three-pound Brown Bullhead is a trophy, and is virtually the size maximum of the species. Brown Bullheads average 12 to 15 inches. The upper part of the head, back and sides are night to low-cal yellow-brown or olive-brownish, shading to grayish white or yellowish white on the belly. The sides have brown or blackness mottling. The Brown Bullhead'due south chin barbels are dark, grayish black, but may have whitish color at the base of operations. These assistance to distinguish the Brown Bullhead from the Black Bullhead, which is known from a few northwestern Pennsylvania counties. The Black Bullhead'south chin barbels are all black. The Brown Bullhead's caudal fin is square-tipped, or slightly rounded. Its strong pectoral fin spines have v to viii sawlike teeth on their rear edges. The anal fin has 18 to 24 rays, ordinarily 22 or 23.

HABITAT

Brown Bullheads live in several habitat types, but they are institute more often than not in ponds and the bays of larger lakes, and in wearisome-moving sections and pools of warmwater streams. They are lesser-dwellers, usually living over soft mud or muck, where there is plenty of underwater vegetation. Dark-brown Bullheads tin sometimes be constitute equally deep as forty feet. They are tolerant of very warm water temperatures, high carbon dioxide and low oxygen levels, and levels of pollution that other fish cannot tolerate.

LIFE HISTORY

Brownish Bullheads spawn in late spring, May to June, when water temperatures achieve 70 degrees. Both males and females participate in nest construction, which can be a shallow saucer on the lesser mud or sand, or amidst roots of aquatic plants, near the protection of stumps, rocks or downed trees. Nests tin can also be excavated holes or natural burrows. Spawning tin can also occur under sunken boards and logs, and in hollow stumps. The water depth for spawning ranges from six inches to several feet. The nests are usually around the shoreline or in coves, or in the rima oris of a creek.

Chocolate-brown Bullheads usually spawn in the daytime. Their courtship includes the male and female caressing each other with their barbels. They spawn beside each other, only facing in the opposite direction. The females produce from 2,000 to xiii,000 cream-colored, mucous-covered eggs. Sometimes one or both parents eat some of the eggs. Both male and female Dark-brown Bullheads cooperate in protecting the nest, eggs and immature. The parents fan and stir the eggs with their fins, aerating them. The parents have as well been seen to take the eggs into their mouths, presumably cleaning them, and to blow the eggs back into the nest once again. Hatched Brown Bullheads are pitch-black and may exist mistaken for tadpoles. I or both parents shepherd the loose ball of fry for several weeks, until the young are about 1 inch long.

Like other Catfish, Brown Bullheads are agile mostly at night, when their sensitive barbels help them notice nutrient in the darkness. They are omnivorous bottom-feeders and swallow a wide variety of found and animate being cloth, including aquatic insects and larvae, worms, minnows and other small-scale fish, crayfish, snails, freshwater clams and fifty-fifty algae. Brown Bullheads are able to exist on atmospheric air for a time. They tin remain alive for hours if kept moist when they are out of the water.

CHANNEL CATFISH

Ictalurus punctatus

SPECIES OVERVIEW

Side by side to the Flathead Catfish, the Channel Catfish is the largest Catfish in Pennsylvania. Weights of upwards to 15 pounds are not unusual at lengths of about xxx inches. The land record is over 35 pounds. Channel "Cats" are avidly sought sport fish and are raised commercially for the tabular array. They are found statewide, introduced where they did non occur naturally. The native range of Channel Catfish is believed to be the Not bad Lakes and St. Lawrence River watershed, the Missouri River system, the Mississippi River watershed, Gulf of Mexico watershed and parts of Mexico. They were not native to the Atlantic Coast due north of Florida. The Channel Catfish's species name "punctatus" means "spotted," referring to the small, night spots on its sides. The Channel Catfish is the just Catfish that has these dots.

IDENTIFICATION

The Channel True cat has a securely forked tail, with tail lobes that are sharply pointed. In bigger fish, the fork is less noticeable or disappears. Channel Cats have 24 to 30 rays on the anal fin, a small, fleshy adipose fin that is separated from the tail, and typical Catfish spines on its dorsal and pectoral fins. The barbels are blackness and long. The back is bluegray to slate-gray or blue olive. The sides tend to be silvery-gray, and the belly is whitish. Except for some large adults, especially the males, Channel Catfish have minor, irregular spots on the sides and back. None of the other Catfishes has these spots. Males get darker, near blue-blackness, during spawning time.

HABITAT

The Channel Catfish is an adaptable fish, ordinarily plant in articulate, warm lakes and moderately large to large rivers, over clean sand, gravel or rock-rubble bottoms. Information technology is more often than not not constitute in the muddied, weed-choked waters that another Catfish species frequent. Channel Cats, especially young fish, may be establish in fast-flowing water. Usually, Aqueduct Catfish prefer deep pools and runs in rivers that have alternate pool and riffle habitats. Information technology is also found in reservoirs, lakes and farm ponds, and even in some of the larger Trout streams.

LIFE HISTORY

Channel Catfish spawn in May to early June, when the water temperature ranges from 75 to 85 degrees, with 80 degrees the optimum. The male prepares the nest, which is usually a depression or hole in an undercut banking company, or an excavated couch nether logs or rocks. Sometimes Channel Cats spawn in sunken, hollow logs or abandoned muskrat holes. In articulate ponds, spawning Channel Cats must take semidarkened shelters, either natural or provided. From reservoirs, Channel Catfish sometimes motility upstream to spawn in tributary rivers. A female Channel True cat may lay 2,000 to 70,000 eggs per yr, depending on her size. After spawning, the males protect the adhesive egg mass and aerate and clean the eggs past fanning their fins. The males besides guard the hatched fish for a time. Young Channel Cats are insect-eaters, feeding on mayfly nymphs, caddis larvae and midge larvae. Equally they grow, they switch to fish, crayfish and mollusks, just notwithstanding feed on aquatic insects, and occasionally eat institute matter. Yearling and subadult Channel Cats are more tolerant of fast water than larger adults. They motility out of slow water into the quicker current or swim brusk distances into tributary streams to feed. Channel Cats feed mostly at night, but may forage on the bottom, where it'due south dim during the day. Aqueduct Catfish, particularly young fish, have been known to feed on the surface. Like other Catfish, at dark they depend on their barbels and their sense of taste to detect food. Fifty-fifty so, Channel Cats are believed to be more of a sight-feeder than other Catfishes, because of their clear-water habitat.

RELATED

Channel Catfish characteristic page

STONECAT

Noturus flavus

SPECIES OVERVIEW

The Stonecat is one of the largest members of the Madtoms, a group of small fishes in the Catfish family. The genus name "Noturus" means "dorsum tail." It refers to the fashion the adipose fin is fused its entire length to the Madtom's back. The species name "flavus" ways "yellow" and describes the fish'due south color. The Madtoms are not well-known because most are piffling fish and hide during the day, even burial themselves in the gravel, emerging to feed at night.

In Pennsylvania at that place are six Madtom species. Some are rare, similar the Mountain, Peppered, Tadpole and Northern Madtoms. The Margined Madtom of eastern Pennsylvania is widely distributed and arable. Madtoms have poisonous substance glands at the base of their pectoral spines. If handled improperly, they can requite a sting as painful as a bee sting.

Margined madtom Noturus insignis

The Stonecat is establish throughout the Mississippi River and Great Lakes watersheds. It is non constitute in Atlantic Coast streams south of the Hudson River. In Pennsylvania, information technology is the most mutual Madtom of the western function of the state, living in the Ohio River and Lake Erie watersheds, and can exist locally plentiful.

IDENTIFICATION

The slender-shaped Stonecat grows to near 12 inches long, but averages half-dozen to eight inches. Its dorsum is xanthous-olive to slate-grey or blue-gray. The sides are lighter, with yellow or pink tints. Its underparts are yellow or white. The tail is rounded or square-looking, with a lite border. The adipose fin is completely bound to the body, a trait that distinguishes the Madtoms. The upper jaw is much longer than the lower jaw. Its upper barbels are grey. The chin barbels are white. There is a light-yellow or whitish oval-shaped spot on the rear portion of the dorsal fin. The Stonecat has no or few and weak sawteeth on the back edges of its pectoral spines. The anal fin has 15 to 18 rays.

Stonecat Noturus flavus

HABITAT

The Stonecat lives in rocky riffles or rapids in creeks and small to large rivers. It is also found over gravelly wind-swept and wavestirred shoals of lakes, including Lake Erie. The word "stone" in its name refers to where it likes to alive. It is a warmwater fish and avoids cold h2o.

LIFE HISTORY

Stonecats spawn in early summer, beginning at about 77 degrees and peaking at 82 degrees. The females produce upwards to 1,200 eggs annually, laying 100 to 500 of them in each nest. The opaque, yellow eggs are attached in a meaty, gluey mass to the underside of apartment stones or like objects in flowing water. The parents guard the eggs and immature for a fourth dimension. Like nearly other Catfish, Stonecats feed at night and have a varied diet, especially consuming fishes and aquatic insect larvae such as midges, caddises, stoneflies and mayflies, as well every bit crustaceans and other small invertebrates.

FLATHEAD CATFISH

Pylodictis olivaris

SPECIES OVERVIEW

Flathead Catfish grow longer and heavier than other Pennsylvania Catfish. In fact, they are 1 of the state's biggest fish, of any kind. Flathead Catfish are known to abound to more than 100 pounds, but xx or xxx pounds is more than probable in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania record is over 40 pounds. Flathead Catfish are native to the lower Nifty Lakes and the Mississippi River bowl, from western Pennsylvania s. They are also in Gulf of Mexico watersheds, and can live in reservoirs. In Pennsylvania, Flatheads are found mainly in the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. Fossils of this Catfish genus that are about fifteen million years old, from the mid-Miocene Epoch, tin't exist distinguished from the modern Flathead Catfish. The Flathead's genus proper name "Pylodictis" means "mud fish," and its species name "olivaris" means "olive-colored."

IDENTIFICATION

Flathead Catfish accept the scaleless, stiff torso and the well-adult pectoral and dorsal fin spines typical of Catfish. The tail is only slightly indented, or may appear square or rounded. The dorsal fin is loftier, and the lower jaw projects past the upper jaw. The body looks long and slender. The upper portion of the Flathead Catfish'southward torso is yellow chocolate-brown to dark, even purplish brown, with black or brown mottling on lighter dark-brown sides. The belly is grayish or yellowish white. Information technology does have a apartment-looking head, very broad and depressed. The chin barbels are white to yellow, the fins are mottled, and the anal fin, which has fewer than xvi rays, is short and rounded. Except for very large adults, Flathead Catfish have a white tip on the upper lobe of the caudal fin. Young Flathead Catfish are nearly black on the back.

HABITAT

Flathead Catfish are found in large rivers, streams and lakes, usually over hard bottoms. They prefer deep, sluggish pools, with logs and other submerged debris that tin can be used every bit cover. Young Flatheads live in rocky or sandy runs in the river and in the riffles.

LIFE HISTORY

The Flathead is a loner and a traveler, leading a alone existence except at spawning time. Flatheads spawn in early summer, later than Channel Catfish. The Flathead's spawning beliefs is like that of other Catfish. The adults course pairs and build nests in natural cavelike depressions in the bank, or they may hollow out a cavity under an underwater object, similar a log or boulder. Their compact egg masses contain from 4,000 to 100,000 eggs. The male guards the nest and the newly hatched fry, becoming aggressive toward the female.

Flatheads grow fairly rapidly and mature sexually at about 15 inches and five years quondam. They can live to at least 19 years old. Juvenile Flatheads alive in riffle areas and feed on larvae and nymphs of aquatic insects. As the Flathead grows, it switches to crayfish and fishes, although many items are on its menu. During the day, Flathead Catfish stay out of sight, hiding beneath undercut banks, in brush piles and log jams. At night they forage in a variety of habitats, including very shallow riffles where their backs and dorsal fins may be exposed. For this reason, angling at night is the mode to catch a big Flathead. Biologists report that one possible feeding strategy of the Flathead is to lie motionless with its mouth open up, until a fish looking for a spot in which to hide swims in. Others have observed Flatheads lunging and grabbing prey after they have lain in wait.

RELATED

Flathead Catfish feature page

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Source: https://www.fishandboat.com/Fish/PennsylvaniaFishes/GalleryPennsylvaniaFishes/Pages/NAmericanCatfishes.aspx