# what is this?



## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

caught this fish this fall and it seems to be a mix between a flat and a channel. wasnt sick as far as i could tell and went nuts after it hit the bottom of the boat. had the body of a channel but had an unusually flat head/wide mouth and flathead markings. wondering if anyone seen anything like this.


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## Zfish (Apr 5, 2004)

You got me but its pretty nifty lookin


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## big_b16 (Oct 17, 2004)

A fish. Not a very pretty one either.


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## LittleMiamiJeff (Oct 1, 2005)

Did you eat it? :0)


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

no way! would you? just marveled at it and threw it back. damn thing ate a shad head the size of a can of tuna!


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## guitar (Jul 15, 2005)

Its a burbot!


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## bill_gfish (Apr 5, 2004)

My guess is it is one ugly channel cat.


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## LittleMiamiJeff (Oct 1, 2005)

Quote: (damn thing ate a shad head the size of a can of tuna!)
Anything that ugly that can eat a shad head that big, (one big shad, state record?) deserves to be thrown back!
Merry Christmas!
Jeff


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## Mean Morone (Apr 12, 2004)

You got me! I've never seen anything like it. I hope someone comes up with an answer for you.


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## TommyV (Aug 31, 2005)

but I can't. I certainly is not the prettiest fish I have ever seen. I have looked in some of my fish identification books and must say there is nothing like it. Sorry I can't help you, but I just can't. Maybe someone in the Division of Wildlife would know.  

Tommy V


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## iteech (Apr 4, 2005)

we used to catch some that looked like that out of our little fishing lakes back in Georgia, when I was a kid. It does look different, but my uncle was a game warden and he told us he called them leopard cats, he didn't know why they looked so different, but they TASTED like a regular cat!  Seriously. He said he thought it was just a mutation, made common by certain conditions in the water. Maybe it IS another strain of catfish, but it's a cat. I think. Hey it made your line tight--it counts.


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## rustyfish (Apr 27, 2004)

I know it is a cat. Its body looks like a channel (cant see the head and mouth all that well). If it has a channel head and mouth i would say it is a channel with a color mutation. But if it has a head and mouth of a flathead, it is possible for the two to mix. Highly unlikely in the wild but physicaly possible. Most like a channel.


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## gulfvet (Apr 14, 2004)

I had my wife, whose people have been commercial fisherman on the rivers of Alabama for centuries, take a look at the photo. Without any hesitation she said it's a Yellow Cat.


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## ashtonmj (May 3, 2004)

It is most likely a channel cat with a skin condition called melanism. A cross between a channel and a flathead in the wild would be quite rare because they are different genuses. It is not a bullhead of any sort because of multiple characteristics of fin types and placement. 

Whomever said burbot...dont take this the wrong way...but you might want to pick up an ODNR fish identification pamphlet and keep with you when you are fishing  

There is also no species of catfish with the common name Yellow Catfish, though it may be a locally given name. There is a Yellow Bullhead, but again that is a different genus than Channel cats are and from various diagnostic features of this picture it is not a Yellow Bullhead.


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## dip (Apr 5, 2004)

yup, it is a motley looking channel cat. catch them fairly often up here. they sure are oogly! often they lose their barbels(whiskas) when they git bigger.


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

Man, I cant beleive you guys. Cat? No way.

That thing is a GMR Sturgeon!


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

actually its a stillwater sturgeon/burbot/bullhead(brown)/rainbow lakes reject.


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## AthensAssassin (Sep 5, 2005)

Could it be some type of a bullhead? I caught a bullhead in Minnesota that had coloration like that. Not sure if there are many bullheads in Ohio but it is a possibility.


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## ashtonmj (May 3, 2004)

There are three species of bullheads in Ohio and while that mottled coloring does resmble that of a juvenille yellow bullhead it is not one. Fin types,fin shapes, placement of fins, as well as head shape, and barbel coloration are what can be used to distinguish.


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## CoolWater (Apr 11, 2004)

I would go with Channel Catfish with melanism. It occurs supposedly about the same frequency as albinoism and basically is the opposite. I found much more about it in animals where it involves the hair being darker (some mammels) but in a fish it is described as the outer tissue being darker and can be mottled. My experience has been if u catch something with weird genetic traits or recessive genes- it sometime manages to have other odd characteristics as well (fin or skeletal structure). It is definately a cool catch in my book and something I'm glad you shared.

Contacting the ODNR or getting ahold of a fish biologist is always an option- but in reality they can get stumped as well and usually will attribute an odd fish to recessive genes or simple natural mutations. While working on my life list I have bothered them on quite a few occaisions.

I'm looking for a picture of a bullhead that I caught a few years back that had some odd mottled color- was a similar intriguing catch. Not nearly as unique as the catfish in this thread though. yes!- found it:


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## Eugene (Jun 23, 2004)

On common names, "yellowbelly" is one frequently used for black bullhead (_Ameiurus melas_). However, they wouldn't ordinarily have a blotchy pigmentation. Spotted (_A. serracanthus_) and snail bullheads (_A. brunneus_) are blotchy, but have never been collected in Ohio, are rather small, don't have an obvious fork in the tail, and do have a more dorsoventrally compressed head profile.

This fish definitely looks like an _Ictalurus_ sp. (i.e., in Ohio waters, almost certainly a channel or possibly a young blue cat) in profile, but with some seriously messed up, melanistic pigmentation. The barbels also look "clubby"and burned as though exposed to some seriously contaminated sediment, perhaps PAH, or an infectious agent.


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## yakfish (Mar 13, 2005)

It's a speckled paddle fish A.K.A. ugly flat yellow channel cat- lol!! I'd have to say that it looks more like a channel than a flat. But you can't really see the head all that well either


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## Fastlane (Apr 11, 2004)

That looks an aweful lot like what is known as a marble cat in the aquarium hobby. I used to have one but that was years ago. It is quite likely that it is a pet that was released. The head resembles a few different South American species. I'd bet it is not a native morph or channel with a disease.


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## iteech (Apr 4, 2005)

That fish looked so familiar to me, but I couldn't figure out why...years ago I had a big aquarium, and I think I had a 'tropical' that looked just like that! It's definitely possible....last summer I pulled a HUGE bright red and black "Oscar" tropical fish out of a park pond--he weighed over a pound. I have also caught big bright orange/red/white "koi"--just a giant goldfish. People tire of them and feel too guilty to just kill them outright, so they 'release' them in the closest waters--I bet never dreaming they will sometimes thrive. Weird, to catch aquarium fish on a line...


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## Eugene (Jun 23, 2004)

My money would still be wagered on channel cat. What I know as marble catfish is a South American Pimelodidae. They have extremely long barbels and adipose fins, much longer than those of this fish. Of course, barbels easily can be damaged, but this fish's adipose fin is pictured pretty clearly and does not look damaged. ...It also looks comfortably icatalurid-like.

A bit of technicality, but koi are carp (_Cyprinus carpio_) and not goldfish (_Carassius auratus_) at all. Both are common releases and are occasionally seen in the wild in bright, "domestic" coloration.


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## Perch (Apr 5, 2004)

I caught a Catfish just like that in Athens Georgia about ten years back.............Exactly the same, I think its a Channel Cat....


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## robstermon (Jan 2, 2006)

Its a bullhead / yellow belly!


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## Perch (Apr 5, 2004)

Actually, I think I remember the landowner telling me it was a European strain of Cat that he had in this lake...................I think.............


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## Walter Adkins (May 20, 2004)

All right this has gone on long enough. You guys all have it wrong! After all this time and no one has given this beautiful fish it's correct name. Come on guys do not look so hard. We all no it by the name, DEEP FRIED DINNER WITH A SIDE OF CHIPS.


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## gulfvet (Apr 14, 2004)

Hear, hear! Nice one, Walter! Add a couple of bottles of Sharps and I'm right in there!


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## gulfvet (Apr 14, 2004)

Actually since I took a closer look with the picture blown up bigger, I'd say that I agree with whomever said it's a channel with melanism. It's definitely shaped right for a channel. The fins have the right number of spines and the tail is forked. A bullhead doesn't have a forked tail. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a catfish sporting a funky paint job, either. I caught a channel in Illinois out of the Kankakee River that looked like it had tiger stripes. But then, I caught it out of an area with tons of weedbeds. It was probably just adapting to its surroundings.


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

after doing some research elsewhere i've settled on a channel with melanism also. from what i learned not only is the coloration messed up but this disease also causes skeletal deformations. the pics i took arent that good but it had a really flat head and a wide mouth which led me to beleive it was a cross breed. he was a really fiesty critter and i barely got those pics before he stuck me. he went for a long toss after that!


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## tcba1987 (Jun 22, 2004)

that IS a channel cat its just got a strange color to it which could be caused by any number of things.


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## awfootball (Aug 10, 2005)

i caught somthing exactly like that in florida in a pond


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