New Catfish I.D.

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R

Rays of Sunshine

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 20, 2010
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Georgia
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I can only give a description for now. I am having camera problems. A guy caught a catfish for me today. It is 12 inches including tail. It has an olive brown colored head. The upper back has a old-gold color. It is heavily black spotted and mottled except for head. It has a red tail also. The catfish has two muscular humps right before the dorsal fin.The whiskers are very dark brown or black and the dorsal fin is the same color too. The whiskers and dorsal fin are darker than the head. Can anyone identify this catfish? It was caught in a lake.:)
 
By 'molted' do you mean 'mottled'?

Describe the color of the chin whiskers. It could be a brown bullhead or a yellow bullhead. Unless GA only has one of the two.
 
Thanks for answering knifegill. I knew you would be one of the first responders!! You are always very helpful!!!! I am not an avid catfisher. I have not seen a type of catfish with coloring or markings as this one. I have seen another catfish at the same lake that had larger mottled black on it. It was dead though and no red tail. I have heard of someone spotting another catfish at the lake with a red tail. Maybe the red tail and large humps are males?
 
RTC x TSN!

Jk, but the red tail is throwing me off. I often see wild-caught catfish with pinkish tails because due to transport stress.

I am going to go with brown bullhead because of the "mottled" description. The 4 individuals I've taken care of at that size were heavily mottled. Younger individuals lack this pattern. Check to see if the tail is sharply forked, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be if it's a bullhead. Also check to see if the barbels on the upper jaw are long and point upwards!
 
Pomatomus, you are joking but when I first heard of a catfish with a red tail living in that lake, I automatically thought someone let a redtailed catfish loose. I thought my catfish was stressed also. It was in a cramped bucket before the guy gave it to me. Time will tell if the blood red tail will go away. The other catfish was caught with a red tail too. The whiskers on top are long and point up and forward. My cameras won't upload, I will post pics when I can. Hopefully, the catfish will be active tommorrow. It hadn't moved for six hours straight. It is breathing and periodically moving it's eyes. I have no idea how long the guy had it in his bucket. It was transported with fresher water and air pump, so hopefully it will bounce back!.
 
Thats wild Ive never seen a bullhead with a redtail, Does it look like bruising of any kind?? Maybe they are native to GA. I havent seen any like that in NC before, I wonder if its from some type of breeding behavior?
 
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