Channel cats?

[Pond9]

Heres a odd shaped head channel cat I caught. Just an idea for size they can get.

 

[Chicxulub]

Channel cats come in a variety of colors. The biggest difference between them and the blues is the anal fin and size. If it doesn't have a forked tail, it's either a Flathead or some bullhead/madtom. Flatheads have flat heads and enormous mouths. Bullheads & madtoms are very hard to ID because there are so many similar species, and each species has different color variants.
Flatheads can grow 4ft+
Channelcats can grow to 3ft, 2 is more normal.
Noone knows how big a blue can get. C Chicxulub thinks they can grow over 6ft, and he's a fisheries biologist, so...
Bullheads & Madtoms range between less than 6" to almost 4 ft, depending on the species.

View attachment 1338729

Back in ye olden days before the blue cat commercial fishery got started, it wasn't unusual for blue cats to be caught in the 200+ pound range. Due to extensive overfishing, fish of these size basically don't have the chance to exist anymore. Still though, "record" size fish can approach 6' long, so it's probable that the fish still possess the genetic potential to reach that size if they were left alone long enough to get there. And before anyone starts, these reports come from Constantine Rafinesque, who is about as reliable of a source as one could ask for.

Blue cats are (or at least would be) in the same league as wels or piraiba if they were to be left alone. Wels in their native range suffer from the same phenomenon; the ones still caught in Germany don't get nearly as large anymore as do those 8' monsters from Spain.

Heres a odd shaped head channel cat I caught. Just an idea for size they can get.

View attachment 1339046

That might be a white catfish, Ameiurus catus. Can't really tell from the pic because all the diagnostic traits are obscured, but it strikes me as likely.

 

[Pond9]

It’s a channel 100%

 

[RD.]

I caught plenty of channel cats in the Detroit River/Lake St. Clair district as a kid, plenty in the 10-15 pound range. Not a suitable cat for the majority of aquariums.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Heres a odd shaped head channel cat I caught. Just an idea for size they can get.

View attachment 1339046

Channel cat, some of the males get heads like that during breeding season, old timers call that chucklehead.

Blues can get roughly 7 ft long or so, perhaps significantly larger, my friend was fishing off a bridge using a marlin rod and a 9 lb drum as bait, and got spooled, the fish took every yard of line and never once stopped.

Kris P Bacon do your cats have a sharp forked tail, round loved forked tail or square tail? Either way cool find.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Channel cat, some of the males get heads like that during breeding season, old timers call that chucklehead.

So THAT'S what it means when someone calls someone a chucklehead? Huh.

 

[Kris P Bacon]

Channel cat, some of the males get heads like that during breeding season, old timers call that chucklehead.

Blues can get roughly 7 ft long or so, perhaps significantly larger, my friend was fishing off a bridge using a marlin rod and a 9 lb drum as bait, and got spooled, the fish took every yard of line and never once stopped.

Kris P Bacon do your cats have a sharp forked tail, round loved forked tail or square tail? Either way cool find.

Fairly rounded and forked.