In general, the morphology of catfish is that catfish have scaly, slippery skin, flat elongated body shape, and have grooves. Additionally, you can also go to our homepage to check out reels for catching catfish.
Here’s the morphology of catfish:
1. Head
The first part that we will discuss in the head. Catfish have elongated flattened heads, with their heads almost a quarter of their body length. His head flattened down or commonly called depressed. At the top and bottom of the head, there are bones that cover the bone plate.
2. Eyes
At the head of the catfish is a pair of small eyes, with free orbital edges.
3. Mouth
The mouth of the fish is rounded and wide enough for the size of a catfish. In his mouth, there are teeth, both real teeth, and teeth that are only a rough surface at the tip of his mouth. Catfish have Villiform-shaped teeth and the teeth are attached to their jaws. The tooth is capable of tearing apart prey or food.
4. whiskers
Catfish has 4 pairs of whiskers in the mouth area. The whiskers consist of a pair of nose antennae, a pair of inner mandibular antennae, a pair of outer mandibular antennae, and a pair of maxilar sunglasses. The whiskers that can be moved are only the mandibular whiskers. The function of the whiskers is as a tool or sense of touch and to smell the presence of food that is located in murky and dark water.
5. Body
The shape of the body of catfish is elongated, slightly rounded in the middle, and for the back of the body flattened sideways or compressed. Catfish have smooth skin and do not have scales.
6. Skin
There is a kind of mucus in the skin of catfish that makes it slippery. Moreover, the skin is also not scaly so it adds slippery. The catfish skin color on the back and sides are usually black or grayish.
7. Fins
Catfish have 5 fins, namely pectoral fins, dorsal fins, pelvic fins, anal fins, and caudal fins. On the pectoral fin, there is a pair of hard and sharp bone spines which are commonly called thorns or stingers. The caudal fin is rounded, the abdomen fin extends almost to the anal fin.