Fish Legends.

[Bigfishnut]

Just looked up their range, and they surprisingly are primarily a northern fish, which is funny for something tolerant of high water temperatures and low dissolved oxygen content. It does look like they inhabit the areas around the Illinois River. When kind of habitat would I most likely find them in?

A fish's native range is not determined by climate tolerance alone...it's also to do with competition and other factors. Anyway, you can find mudminnows in quiet swampy waters. Usually near a major river is where they are most abundant. I've had the best luck finding them in landlocked areas free from predatory fish. Most places I find them they are the only species of fish present.

 

[Chicxulub]

So then the flathead isn't really the biggest NA catfish?
This would make the blue catfish equal in size or bigger than even piraiba. The only catfish bigger than it are the wels and mekong giant?

Even now blues get larger than flatheads, and flatheads haven't been the victim of commercial over exploitation like blues.

Historical blues got as large as modern wels and piraiba, but historical wels and piraiba got significantly larger than they do now.

 

[Atfownz]

Ahh, such a shame. I usually smear my nuts in fish blood, and cut a hole in my bathing suit, and flop my bare nuts around in the water. But now that I know that there are sharks in the hot tub, I guess I will have to remove my nuts and hide them in the lockeroom...

There is a sign on the wall. "BEWARE: Keep your nuts in the locker room."

 

[HumanBean]

Btw fully grown arapaima and gars have skin which is up to a certain extent bullet proof. This is true.

Also wels catfish can swallow an object size of a fully grown man because of their sheer size.

 

[itrebebag99]

Btw fully grown arapaima and gars have skin which is up to a certain extent bullet proof. This is true.

Also wels catfish can swallow an object size of a fully grown man because of their sheer size.

Their skin bulletproof? Maybe their skulls, but if a bowfishing arrow can punch through past the barbs, a bullet would have no problem.

 

[NathanKS]

Not exactly true, arrows/bullets rely upon slightly different forces to penetrate.

Any good arrowhead will pierce a non stab treated Kevlar bullet proof vest without too much difficulty.

 

[infiltratedpc]

ballistica''
"Poke gar in the eyeball thus ending up with an permanent nonblind black gar"
Myth or legend¿

 

[Fat Homer]

The aro legend and the one about black fish come from asian beliefs, mainly Chinese...

But the black fish are also normally Black Mollys which get used as far as Fung Shui goes...

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Not exactly true, arrows/bullets rely upon slightly different forces to penetrate.

Any good arrowhead will pierce a non stab treated Kevlar bullet proof vest without too much difficulty.

This is true as a 9mm round will often bounce off a front windshield instead of penetrating,also bullets work poorly in water.

 

[itrebebag99]

400 pounds might be a bit of a stretch for blue cats, but there are reliable reports from Constantine Rafinesque, a reputable naturalist, who reported regularly seeing 250-300 pound blue cats in the early 1800s before the commercial fishery took its toll.

If commercial fishing devastated the amount of supposedly 250-300 lb blue cats, then that means that many of these 250-300 lb blue cats would have been caught, and there probably would have been actual documented proof of giant blue catfish, instead of just supposed sightings. Sorry, but I find that hard to believe that bluecats can grow to 300 lbs considering the world record right now is 135 lbs.