ID help

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jakesssvx1, I cant tell you what kind of catfish or madtom that you have because I am no expert on Virginia fishes, but I can tell you that in Virginia and West Virginia you should be very carefull in collecting fish that you cant ID. Virginia has the threatened Yellowfin madtom , you want to make sure that you haven't gotten one of those .....if you accidentally get one immediately return it back into it habitat before you put it with other fish or in a established tank or bucket, its a federal offense to collect or own a Yellowfin madtom without a special permit. Virginia also has Flat Bullheads as well as Flathead catfish; if you don't already own a Petersons guide to freshwater fishes before collecting I would get one or see if your local library has one.
 
Thanks warmouth. That's helpful to know. I didn't collect these fish they are for sale online and I want to know what they are. I have collected my own fish before, but not much. I've never seen a Madtom before they live in colder water mountain streams correct? That's my understanding and would explain why I never see any. Why does the yellow Madtom need to be protected?


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jakessvx1 said:
Thanks warmouth. That's helpful to know. I didn't collect these fish they are for sale online and I want to know what they are. I have collected my own fish before, but not much. I've never seen a Madtom before they live in colder water mountain streams correct? That's my understanding and would explain why I never see any. Why does the yellow Madtom need to be protected?


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That's great news, we have Flatheads but I don't believe Ive ever seen one under 8 inches before (that I recognized) with the tail, it would be hard to tell them when theyre small form some madtoms or a Flatbullhead; in a survey in 1969 they couldn't find any and thought they were extinct.
 
+1 for buying a peterson's guide (or checking one for your fish in the book store). I agree that the 2nd pic looks a lot like a madtom, but there are a number of madtoms all over the country so chances are it's okay to keep it. I keep tadpole madtoms, they're everywhere in FL. They come in with the ghost shrimp the stores buy.
 
Pomatomus said:
+1 for buying a peterson's guide (or checking one for your fish in the book store). I agree that the 2nd pic looks a lot like a madtom, but there are a number of madtoms all over the country so chances are it's okay to keep it. I keep tadpole madtoms, they're everywhere in FL. They come in with the ghost shrimp the stores buy.
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Thanks, I think Petersons is the best for fish descriptions outside of the regional books that are sometimes out of print or expensive; and yeah Tadpole, Slender, and Margined are pretty good aquarium fish, I kept a Checkered for awhile until my Green sunny killed it.
 
It looks like a brown bullhead to me. I'm 90% sure it's not a Flathead, the pic is too fussy to tell for sure. Baby flatheads look just like an adult so it's pretty easy to tell.
 
Brown bullheads are speckled though (black and silver), especially at that size. I have kept several from 1" to over 1'
 
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