Hardhead catfish facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hardhead catfish |
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Ariopsis
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felis
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The hardhead catfish (Ariopsis felis) is a type of sea catfish. It lives in the northwest Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It looks a bit like the gafftopsail catfish. This fish gets its name from a hard, bony plate on its head. This plate goes from between its eyes back towards its dorsal fin (the fin on its back). Hardhead catfish can grow up to 28 in (70 cm) long and weigh up to 12 lb (5.5 kg). Most are less than 1 lb (450 g), but some reach 3 lb (1.4 kg). They are usually dirty gray on top and white underneath.
Contents
Where Hardhead Catfish Live and What They Look Like
Hardhead catfish are mostly found near the coast in the Western Atlantic Ocean. This includes the southeast United States, the Florida Keys, and the Gulf of Mexico. They also live in brackish estuaries and river mouths. These areas often have sandy or muddy bottoms. They rarely go into freshwater. In winter, they move from shallower to deeper waters. These fish are common in their natural habitat.
The hardhead catfish has four barbels (whisker-like feelers) under its chin. It has two more at the corners of its mouth. These barbels help the catfish find food like crabs, fish, and shrimp. They live in muddy bays, so these feelers are very useful. The dorsal fin and pectoral fins each have a sharp, slimy, barbed spine. When the fish is excited, the dorsal spine usually stands up. Even a thick shoe might not protect you from it. The gafftopsail catfish looks similar. However, its dorsal and pectoral spines have a unique fleshy part. This part looks like a ship's topsail.
What Hardhead Catfish Eat
The hardhead catfish eats many different things. It is an opportunistic consumer. This means it eats whatever food it can find. It often hunts on mud and sand flats. It mainly eats detritus (decaying matter), small creatures living in the mud, and other fish. Its diet includes algae, seagrasses, cnidarians (like jellyfish), sea cucumbers, snails, worms, shrimp, and crabs. Sometimes, it also eats larger animals.
What a hardhead catfish eats depends on its size and where it lives. Younger catfish eat small crustaceans. These include amphipods, shrimp, blue crabs, mollusks, and annelids (segmented worms). Young fish still protected by their father (who carries them in his mouth) eat tiny planktonic crustaceans. Adult hardhead catfish mostly eat larger fish.
How Hardhead Catfish Move and Communicate
Movement Patterns
Studies show that hardhead catfish activity changes with the seasons. Their movement patterns change throughout the year. These changes match when the catfish move from shallow to deeper waters. The amount of daylight seems to be the main signal for these changes. This seasonal behavior suggests that hardhead catfish might have an internal clock.
Chemical Communication
Hardhead catfish become more active when they sense chemicals from injured fish. This shows they communicate with each other. They reacted most strongly right after the chemicals appeared. They also reacted to chemicals from injured sailfin mollies, but this reaction was weaker. Scientists found special alarm cells in the catfish's skin. These cells are similar to those in freshwater catfish. This type of alarm reaction was first seen in freshwater fish. Hardhead catfish are the first marine fish known to show this behavior.
Sound Production and Echolocation
Hardhead catfish might use sound to find obstacles. They make low-frequency sounds to detect and avoid things close by. Fish that made sounds avoided obstacles. Silent fish often bumped into them. Many fish make sounds for alarms, territory, or mating. But hardhead catfish seem to be unique in using sound to explore their surroundings. There is no proof they use echolocation over long distances, like bats or whales. Their sounds are low in frequency and volume. So, echolocation might only work for things very close to them.
Hardhead catfish can make sounds in different ways. They can vibrate thin bones near their swim bladder using special muscles. They can also grind their throat teeth or rub their pectoral spines against their shoulder bones. These sounds seem to be a fright response. Some people think hardhead catfish use a simple form of sonar for echolocation. This would mean they can hear directions. It is also possible they use sound for courtship and spawning, but this has not been proven.
Hardhead Catfish Life Cycle and Reproduction
The hardhead catfish reproduces from May to September. Males and females can start having babies before they are 2 years old. Female catfish are usually 12.6–26.5 cm (5.0–10.4 in) long when they mature. Males are a bit larger, around 25 cm (9.8 in). When females mature, they grow fatty tissue near their pelvic fins. This makes their pelvic fins larger than the males'. These larger fins might help with fertilization. They could also help move fertilized eggs to the male for him to carry. Another idea is that males pick up eggs from sandy spots, as the eggs tend to sink to the bottom. Hardhead catfish usually live for about 4 years.
Parental Care: Mouthbrooding
How Mouthbrooding Works
Like other fish in their family, hardhead catfish fathers take care of their young by mouthbrooding. After the female lays eggs, the male carries them in his mouth until they hatch. Some eggs in the group are not fertile. These attach to the larger, healthy eggs. The male might eat these non-fertile eggs for food. This is because mouthbrooding fathers do not eat while they are caring for their eggs. The male carries the eggs for about 8 to 11 weeks. This continues until the young fish are past the yolk-sac stage. In a lab, the young can hatch in about 30 days. The baby fish are about 6–8 cm long. They slowly learn adult behaviors, like finding food on the bottom. Once their yolk sac is gone, they start to look like adult catfish. The father can choose to carry the young even after they hatch. He does this until they are big enough to survive on their own.
Benefits of Mouthbrooding
Mouthbrooding has many benefits compared to other ways of caring for young. For example, some fish build bubble nests. Mouthbrooding fathers can move freely with the eggs in their mouths. This means they can move to protect themselves and their babies. Carrying the eggs takes a lot of energy for the male. However, it greatly increases the chance of his young surviving. This helps pass on his genes. The eggs are safe inside their father's mouth. Mouthbrooding by males helps make up for the small number of eggs females lay. Females only lay about 20-65 eggs each time. Also, as the male breathes, he keeps the eggs well-oxygenated. This also helps the babies survive.
Fishing for Hardhead Catfish
Hardhead catfish are very hungry fish. They will bite almost any natural bait. They are also known for stealing bait from fishing lines. Shrimp works very well as bait. If you are fishing for them in freshwater, different meats work best. These include bacon, chicken, steak pieces, and smaller fish. Most anglers do not want to catch hardhead catfish. This is because they are venomous and can sting you. Also, their meat can taste "fishy" compared to other popular game fish.
Hardhead catfish are edible. But like all catfish, they need some effort to clean. They are one of the top 30 fish caught for fun in central Florida's Indian River Lagoon area. From 1997 to 2001, over 361,000 hardhead catfish were caught there.
Hardheads are also caught by commercial fishing boats using large nets. The number caught each year changes a lot. But from 1987 to 2001, over 1 million pounds of marine catfish were caught in the Indian River Lagoon region. This catch was worth about $777,497.
Weight and Length of Hardhead Catfish
Hardhead catfish usually weigh around 1 lb (0.45 kg). They measure 10 to 12 in (25–30 cm) long.
As hardhead catfish grow longer, they also get heavier. The way length and weight are related is not a straight line. For almost all fish species, the relationship between total length (L, in inches) and total weight (W, in pounds) can be shown with this equation:
In this equation, 'b' is always close to 3.0 for all species. 'c' is a number that changes for different species. This relationship means a 20 in (51 cm) hardhead catfish will weigh about 3 lb (1.4 kg). A 25 in (64 cm) hardhead catfish will likely weigh at least 6 lb (2.7 kg).
Images for kids
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Hardhead catfish typically weigh around 1 pound.
See also
In Spanish: Ariopsis felis para niños
