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.”