A catfish might say to you: “why do you call them ‘whiskers?’ They are not whiskers at all!” And, of course, it’s only because those things on the fish’s mouth resemble a cat’s whiskers that we call them that. Actually they are barbels, or feelers, and help the catfish know what’s going on all about him.

There’s another way a catfish is supposed to resemble a cat: makes a buzzing or croaking sound when caught that suggests a cat’s purring. It’s for these two reasons that this kind of fish got its name “catfish.”

Young boys are especially well acquainted with the catfish because it is one of the easiest fish to catch. It will bite at almost any bait, from a piece of red string to a worm. And because the catfish does such a good Job of caring for its young and protecting its nest, there always seems be a lot of catfish around.

Actually, the catfish family has about 2,000 different species. The European catfish is known to grow to a length of 3 meters and a weight of 180 Kgs. Some specimens of the Mississippi catfish and the Great Lakes catfish have been found to weigh 68 kilograms.

Many catfish are good eating, especially the white cat, found in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River; the blue cat, found in Southern streams; and the bullheads, bull pouts, or horned pouts.

Some catfish have strange habits. One South American species is said to travel overland from pond to pond, and another builds a nest of blades of grass for its young. There is even an electric catfish in Africa which can give a painful electric shock. In the river Nile is a species which avoids the notice of its enemies by swimming with its black belly up and its white back down!