Catfish

Facts Of Catfish 
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Osteichthyes
Order: Siluriformes
Scientific Name: Siluriformes
Origin: Warm freshwater
Diet: Carnivore
Size (L): 1cm - 270cm (0.4in - 106in)
Water Type: Fresh
Optimum pH Level: 6.5 - 8.0
Lifespan: 8 - 20 years
Conservation Status: Threatened
Colour: Brown, Black, Yellow, White, Tan, Grey
Skin Type: Scales
Favourite Food: Fish
Habitat: Fast-flowing rivers and lakes
Average Clutch Size: 40
Main Prey: Fish, Frogs, Worms
Predators: Large Fish, Birds, Mammals, Reptiles
Distinctive Features: Flat, broad head and whiskers

Catfish are a gathering of base sustaining fish that are found in freshwater environments and waterfront districts nearby every landmass on the planet except for Antarctica. Catfish are most effortlessly distinguished by their smoothed expansive heads and the long bristle like barbels that project from the mouth of the catfish.

The long barbels of the catfish contain the taste buds of the catfish as are regularly most ordinarily utilized for noticing and in this way detecting what is going to eat (and to avoid) in the encompassing waters. In spite of the name notwithstanding, not all catfish species have unmistakable hair like barbels.

There are almost 3,000 known types of catfish on the planet however it is imagined that the genuine number of catfish species could be as high as 4,500 the same number of types of catfish are found in regions where there is next to zero human contact. In spite of the fact that catfish can for the most part be found in quicker streaming waterways and streams, some catfish species have adjusted to living in shallow salt-water situations while other catfish species experience their lives in hollows underground.

The normal catfish is around a meter long as a rule marginally less relying upon the species. Catfish anyway can go in measure from only a centimeter long to in excess of two meters in length. The biggest types of catfish is the Mekong catfish, which is discovered occupying parts of the Mekong waterway that moves through Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The biggest Mekong catfish at any point discovered estimated about 3 meters long.

Catfish for the most part have a flesh eating diet, in spite of the fact that the little catfish species have been known to ingest little sea-going plants. Catfish tend to feast upon fish, bugs and worms that stay near the stream bed, alongside creatures of land and water, for example, frogs and newts and once in a while little reptiles and vertebrates.

Because of the wide assorted variety and scope of the catfish, the catfish has various predators all around the globe. Huge fish, creatures of land and water, reptiles, well evolved creatures and even feathered creatures all go after the 3,000 distinctive catfish species.

Female catfish produce (lay their eggs) near the surface of the water where they are sheltered from other base abiding oceanic creatures. Female catfish lay somewhere in the range of 10 and 90 little eggs at once which incubate in under seven days.