What Kind of Fish Is a Catfish?

Catfish is a type of fish with big eyes set on a flat head. It has an overbite and antenna-shaped barbels near its mouth, which it uses for catching prey. Most of them are opportunistic in nature, when it comes to food, they take advantage of any opportunity that comes their way. Its main types include flathead, channel, and bullhead catfish. A few species are omnivores, meaning they feed on animals as well as plants.

A single catfish resting near the bottom of a river
Catfish are built for life at the bottom, flat head, wide mouth, and long sensory barbels.

How Do Catfish Find Their Food?

Catfish are very strong predators and can hunt for food at any level of the water body. Whether deep in the water or near its surface, their well-developed gustatory organs help them detect odors. These organs are called whiskers. They make it easy for catfish to find prey in areas with very little visibility.

As we know, very little sunlight reaches the bottom of a water body. This low visibility actually works in the catfish's favor, because they can sense their prey easily with smell while other fish struggle to see. Catfish eat carrion such as dead microbes and more. The other foods they eat include mallard, mosquito larvae, clams, snails, bullfrogs, berries, leeches, algae, meadow vole, and aquatic plants.

What Do Young Catfish Eat?

Young catfish are moderately small in size and easy to raise. They are often kept as pets in fish aquariums. Young fish usually eat invertebrates. While in captivity or in a tank, their feed can be cockles, trout, and shellfish such as prawns and mussels. Ready-made foods also work well, things like flake foods, sinking pellets containing protein, and granular food. Brine shrimp and blood worms are also eaten by them.

Some species of this fish that are herbivores depend mainly on courgette and vegetables such as spinach, cucumber, potato, and lettuce.

What Bait Do Catfish Eat?

Anglers and fishermen catch catfish with the help of baits that have a strong odor, because these fish are most attracted to strong smells. They can hardly resist a good scent. Fishermen make baits using dough balls, organs of chicken or other animals, or other odorous foods.

Besides those, other smelly substances used as bait include uncooked bacon, crappie, rotten cheese, crawfish, bluegill, sardines, herring, hot dogs, worms, carp, crayfish, chunks of shad flesh, and bait dip coupled with cheese. Among these, night-crawlers such as earthworm or red worm make for very good bait for these fish. In the fall season, catfish mainly feed on frogs and other amphibians.

Various fish foods and baits used to attract catfish
Fishermen rely on smelly baits (from dough balls to night-crawlers) to lure catfish in.

Take the Catfish Quiz!

5 quick questions. How much do you know about what catfish eat?

Facts About Catfish

Sunlight always penetrates the topmost regions of any water body. Catfish usually live in the darker regions below. However, during winter when it gets extremely cold, these fish move to the zone of the water body that has good thermal conditions.

Smaller and younger catfish need more food compared to bigger, grown ones. Some species (such as the channel catfish) are among the most consumed freshwater fish in lakes, creeks, and rivers of the U.S.

Close-up of catfish barbels, the antenna-shaped sensory whiskers near its mouth
The barbels aren't just for looks, they're packed with smell and taste receptors that help catfish hunt in the dark.

Catfish usually mate in late spring. After mating, the male protects the eggs from other aquatic species. However, sometimes the male consumes some of those eggs.

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Points to Remember for Pet Owners

If you have a pet catfish, make sure you feed only the amount of food it needs. If food remains uneaten, it can rot and infect the tank or aquarium.

Catfish are very active during the evening or at night. This is the best time to feed them.

Due to their strong sensory organs, catfish have an edge over other predator fish. But here's the irony: fishermen take advantage of this very characteristic to catch them by using odorous baits.