Catfish

Yeah, well, the answer for this question is pretty obvious, isn’t it? The truth is that the only relationship we could find between a catfish and a real cat is that, uhm, cats love to eat fish. So we thought it’d be a great opportunity to mention this siluriform fish in our list of interesting animals.

Register with Facebook Do not miss our posts.

Characteristics of the catfish

Let us start by stating that the catfish is a type of ray-finned fish. But here is when it gets interesting. The anatomy of this fish includes huge barbels, which is what makes them resemble a fish.

A cool fact about this fish is that there are several species of them that range in size from very big fish to tiny parasitic fish.

Despite the name, not all catfish have barbels. How do we know that these are catfish, then? They are identified by their similarities with the fish in other traits.

Habitat

You can find this fish living on the shores of every continent, except Africa. We can find a greater diversity of these fish in tropical South America, Africa, and Asia.

More than half of the existing catfish live in the Americas. They can be found in freshwater habitats in Australia, Madagascar, and New Guinea.

Most of them inhabit shallow running water. These fish have an important commercial value. This is why they have been introduced into European waters; with the hope that they multiply and provide food for the locals.

Importance

This fish has an enormous commercial importance. They can easily be farmed in warm climates. This provides for inexpensive food.

As a food, has always been caught and farmed for food for thousands of years. Some experts consider that catfish has a great taste while others consider it too watery and flavorless.

Probably this is where we can connect these fish with our housecat. We definitively can feed some catfish to our cat, just being careful with small bones. Speaking of food, we would like to invite you to take a look at the resources we have prepared for you here in Dogalize. Feel free to take a look at everything we have prepared especially for you.