What Do Catfish Eat?

Flathead catfish diet mostly constitutes of fish, insects, and crustaceans.

• This catfish species is also referred to as the Mississippi cat, yellow cat, mudcat, or the shovelhead cat.
• As its name suggests, this catfish has a flat head. Aside from this, it looks like a typical catfish with barbells around its mouth and smooth scale-less skin.
• This species inhabits lakes, rivers, canals, and streams, especially those with cloudy waters and slow currents.

Channel catfish are opportunistic feeders whose diet includes fish, clams, snails, insects, small mammals, and crustaceans. There are reports of some species consuming small birds. They also eat vegetation.

• The channel catfish is also known as the speckled catfish, spotted catfish, fork-tailed catfish, or the silver catfish.
• This species is notable for its forked tail and its upper jaw which is longer and overlaps the lower jaw.
• They inhabit lakes, larger rivers, and streams especially on mudflats, clean sand, gravel or stone bottoms. They can also be found below dams.

Blue catfish’s broad palate includes mostly fish and large invertebrates.

• As its name suggests, the blue catfish is predominantly pale blue, but it can also have olive hue on their backs and sides and are white on the lower parts.
• Blue catfish are mostly found in rivers, especially over sand, gravel, and mud.

North African catfish diet includes planktons, shrimp, fish, snails, birds, dead animals, seeds, nuts, grains, and fruit.

• The North African catfish is commonly found in Africa, some parts of Asia and Europe.
• This species inhabits a plethora of freshwater environs which include lakes, pools, and ponds.

Catfish use a wide array of hunting techniques to find their prey.

• Predation has been noted to be successful when slow benthic organisms are targeted.
• One strategy some species use is the pack-hunting technique where there is a collaboration of several catfish.
• Herding is mostly used where their preferred prey is trapped and later ambushed. Catfish can also hunt prey individually by targeting prey and capturing it.

Different catfish species are active during different times of the day.

• Some species are nocturnal, preferring to come out at night to feed.
• An excellent example of a nocturnal feeder is the African catfish.
• Some species display diurnal or crepuscular activity.

How often catfish eat depends on many factors, one being age.

• Younger catfish need more energy to grow compared to the already mature species.
• As such, they will tend to eat as often and more compared to mature catfish.

Thanks to their abundance and their poor motility in land and water, catfish are preyed upon quite easily by a vast range of organisms.

• Examples of organisms that predate on catfish include crocodiles, some bird species, Storks, Fish Eagles, leopards, and of course, humans!
• Some catfish species are eaten by other catfish (cannibalism).

Catfish play an instrumental role in the animal food chain.

• They feed on a large number of smaller organisms (mollusks, aquatic insects, crustaceans, and small fish).
• Because of this role, they help keep the local population of these organisms under check.
• Catfish, especially the channel catfish species, are preyed upon by organisms like humans thus providing them with vital nutrients necessary for survival.
• Catfish also feed on carrion from dead organisms. In this role, they help rid the ecosystem of dead organic matter, thus providing a clean ecosystem for other organisms to thrive.