Posted by funkman on November 13, 2002 at 18:05:06:
In Reply to: Re: brown bullhead catfish posted by mr pleco on September 17, 2002 at 13:25:09:
::I keep the small bullheads I have caught in the Mississippi and its tributaries. Don't know if they are brown, yellow or black, but they stay small all their lives (less than a pound) and their bellies get yellowish after the first year or so. I have a 120 gallon native fish tank, and they are the only native catfish I never have to release, as they don't outgrow it.
::cindy
:
:I'm pretty sure the kind your keeping are yellow bullheads. Brown bullheads often do grow larger, but other than that the bullhead species are almost identical.
:
I don't know much about your area, but you usually don't find brown bullheads in flowing water (except for random strays). They prefer deeper clear lakes. A yellow you can identify by looking at the barbels. The yellow's 4 lower barbels on its chin are whitish-yellow while the rest are dark/black. The yellow also has a long straight anal fin.
The black has all dark barbels, and a short rounded anal fin.
The brown has an overall speckled and mottled pattern, and doesn't have a clearly white/yellow belly like the others.
There's also the possibility of a brown/black hybrid.
I've kept a black bullhead in an aquarium easily before, raising him from a baby to full-grown at ~1 foot in a 30 gallon aquarium. It did quite fine, but often fought with a large channel cat also in the tank. They'll eat night crawlers or any other creatures you might find to throw in there, they aren't picky. None get very large, blacks are the smallest, then yellows, then browns.
E-mail me if you want more identifying characteristics, as there are plenty.
