Subject: Re: catfish question

From: [email-masked] (D.J. Spry)
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 1995 18:59:16 GMT

[email-masked] (JStang9595) writes:

>I was recently swimming in a lake in northern Michigan when I noticed
>moving black spot in the water.  I looked closer and realized there were
>hundreds of little catfish swimming so close together I could hardly tell
>one from the other.  Later, my uncle and I were discussing this behavior
>and wondered if the catfish were hatched at the same time or were born by
>live birth.  We also wondered if this was normal behavior.  In twenty
>years of fishing I had never seen anything like this!  If anyone has any
>information, please mail me at 
>                        [email-masked]

>                                        thanks!!

Scott and Crossman in _Freshwater Fishes of Canada_ (aka the Bible) write
regarding the brown bullhead that eggs are laid in nests guarded by one or
both parents.  After hatching .."The young, whose shape and pitch-black
colour make them resemble tadpoles, are shepherded about for several
weeks in a loose sphere by one or both of the parents until they are about
2 inches long.  The the guarding and the school break down and the
individuals disperse."  I have only seen this behaviour once, and in a 
small pond, species of catfish uncertain.

Regards

Doug Spry
Toronto, ON CANADA

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 12 Jul 1995 14:58:11 GMT

>>information, please mail me at 

here in iowa the bullheads do this too. I caught some and used them
for bait last weekend, so i'm sure they weren't tadpoles.( they already
had their horns)
 I did see any adult bullheads though.