Re: NANFA-- bullhead help

R. W. Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Sun, 7 Jul 2002 12:40:25 -0500

It was not a channel catfish, flathead catfish, stonecat or tadpole madtom,
the other species of catfish that can be found in the area. This was
definatly some kind of bullhead. Like I said, the best way to describe it
would be to mix a yellow and brown bullhead together evenly, displaying
faded characteritics of both fish. The tail was more square like a brown,
the anal fin had some what of a "rounded" lower edge like a brown ( I should
have counted fin rays on the anal). The color was a gray though, and had a
slightly mottled appearance with the mottling being a black/brown/green kind
of off the wall color. The fins were uniform in color brownish black. The
belly was an off white, and the barbels on the bottom were black when laying
flat agains the fish, but if you turned them over they were white on the
side that would be stuck to the fish out of the water. Its mouth was more
terminal than subterminal, so more like a brown or black bullhead than a
yellow. The adipose fin was clearly seperate from the tail and well formed,
even though the fish looked a bit thin. I do not catch browns very often
here, but the ones I have caught at this size are usually less tadpole
shaped than black bullheads. The browns here range from the northern form
which looks nearly identical to the black bullhead at first look, and I have
caught some southerns with the pretty brown ground color and nice black
marbeling. This fish was shaped like the yellow bullheads which have a bit
of a more cylindrical shape at this size, here anyways.

I guess if I catch another I will have to keep it and find out some way to
take some pictures of it. Presently I have not good way to take pictures of
fish in tanks, other than video. That works good but is hard to share.

Ray
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