Madtom question

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J

jdhuegel1

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 30, 2011
297
3
16
Frederick MD
So about a year and a half ago I caught 2 itty bitty catfish in a cup while looking for crayfish. I'd always considered these little dudes to be madtoms. Honestly, I'd never seen them any size but tiny. Well, I kept these two little guys because they're so darn cute and out of nowhere they're 7-8" long. They don't seem to be growing much now, but isn't that a bit big for a madtom (tadpole maybe?) They look almost identical to bullheads. One is yellow and one is super dark brown. It's difficult to get pictures because they rarely come out and when they do it's like the tazmanian devil got loose in my tank.

Any thoughts what I might have?

They were caught in a creek outside Frederick MD if that helps.
 
Wheres the pics? :p

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The adipose fin of madtoms merges with the tail fin and it remains separate in bullheads. 7 or 8 inches is large for madtoms but not outrageously so. I'd have to look at some species maps but they could be stone cats as well which are basically rather large madtoms. Pictures would be nice...
 
Yeah the tadpole doesn't grow that big or fast usually. Might be another type of madtom or other catfish. Maybe a bullhead or something? Look up your local catfish and you should find it!
 
Pomatomus said:
Yeah the tadpole doesn't grow that big or fast usually. Might be another type of madtom or other catfish. Maybe a bullhead or something? Look up your local catfish and you should find it!
Click to expand...

Exactly what I thought about the tadpole also. I've done a bunch of research, and quite honestly they "must" be madtoms... (I'll have to look at the stone cat possibility too). Maybe they're just not regularly captive and fed like pigs like mine haha!
 
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Maybe a Stonecat (Noturus flavus). They look strikingly similar to yellow bullhead and achieve about 10-12" when fully grown. Pictures would definitely help.
 
Its a good chance that they are bullheads.
 
So I tried for 30 minutes to get these little turds on camera. NO LUCK. The yellow one wedges into this bamboo branch so between the glass reflection and the camera focusing on the darn bamboo.... Nothing. The brown one wont come out from the rocks. Will try again. I'd just net them, but don't want to disturb them too much. And my green perch gets all fired up when I start messing around. Soon as I get off work (yes, on Christmas) I'll drop some beef in there and see if they'll come out! Thx again for the ideas so far.
 
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