What do baby bullheads look like

There is a small adipose fin. The caudal tail fin has rounded corners but comes straight down to give it the squared appearance and has 15 to 18 rays. The anal fin has 19 to 25 rays so is pretty decent size. The gill rakers have from 16 to 18 rays. The pectoral fins have spines which actually carry a small amount of venom which can cause a stinging pain for up to a week. The barbells do not cause the sting but past confusion probably gave rise to such a belief.

The average weight is one to two pounds and they almost never get as large as five pounds. Territory Bullheads are natively distributed from east of the continental divide in central Montana, south to Texas and in the streams of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast north into Canada. They tend to avoid freely flowing waters. They are bottom feeders and eat almost anything including dead fish, insects, other fish, grain, and crayfish. They most often feed at night. Spawning Activity Spawning occurs between May and July.

Though the cause of skin tumors requires further research, liver tumors are associated with exposure to toxic chemical contaminants known as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs. The Anacostia has a higher incidence than other areas in the Chesapeake Bay, but has observed a decrease in tumors over time.

Bottom-dweller that lives in fresh and slightly brackish waters, including shallows, clear pools and deeper areas. Prefers slow-moving waters with a soft bottom and lots of vegetation.

The brown bullhead is a smooth-skinned catfish with a mottled, brownish body and whisker-like barbels around the mouth. It lives in slow-moving ponds, streams and rivers throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The brown bullhead grows to about one foot long, but can be as long as 20 inches. Its olive or yellowish-brown body is mottled with brown or black. It has a yellowish-white belly. The belly is yellowish or white. The fins are dusky or black, the membranes much darker than the rays. The upper tip of the tail fin is never lighter in color than the rest of the tail fin. Adult length: seldom exceeds 16 inches; weight: seldom exceeds 2. Widespread statewide. The black bullhead is better represented in the prairie region of northern and western Missouri than elsewhere.

The black bullhead is nearly statewide in distribution. It is the most abundant bullhead in many prairie streams of northern and western Missouri. It is less numerous than the yellow bullhead in most habitats of the Ozarks and Bootheel lowlands. It rarely occurs in main channels of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers but is abundant in overflow waters along their floodplains. The black bullhead occurs in a variety of habitats but is most abundant in those with turbid water, a silt bottom, no noticeable current or strong flow, and a lack of diversity in the fish community.

Especially favorable habitats are the pools of small, intermittent creeks and the muddy oxbows and backwaters of larger streams in the prairie region of northern and western Missouri. Here, the black bullhead and a few other hardy species — such as the golden shiner, fathead minnow, and green sunfish — sometimes comprise the bulk of the fishes present. The black bullhead occasionally achieves high population densities, with young continuing to school and forage together throughout their first summer of life.

The black bullhead, like other catfishes, relies on an acute sense of smell to find its food. Young black bullheads feed primarily from the bottom on a variety of plant and animal material. One study showed the diet of adult black bullheads was principally immature aquatic insects, and young up 1 inch long fed almost exclusively on small crustaceans. Adults are mostly inactive during the day but leave the deeper parts of pools to feed during the early hours of darkness, returning shortly before dawn.

The young swim actively in schools during most of the daylight hours and exhibit two primary feeding periods: one around dawn and the other around dusk. Taxonomically, there are more than 35 catfish families in the world.

Members of genus Ameiurus have blunt heads and squared tail fins with only a slight notch if any as opposed to truly forked tails as in channel cats. Black bullheads spawn in May or June. The female excavates a saucer-shaped nest by fanning material out with her lower fins and pushing pebbles to the periphery with her snout.

Nests often are located beneath logs or other large objects elevated above the stream bottom. One of the parent bullheads remains with the nest, fanning and aerating the eggs with the fins and warding off predators. Minnows and sunfish often hover near the nest, rushing in to eat eggs whenever an opportunity arises. Upon leaving the nest, the young bullheads move about in a compact, ball-like school, accompanied by one or both of the adults.

The balls of coal-black young bullheads are easy to see from shore as they move around near the surface. The adults abandon the young when they are about 1 inch long, but the young continue to school throughout their first summer of life. Few individuals live more than about 5 years in the wild. Although purists may turn up their noses at the idea of angling for bullheads, these fishes provide many hours of fishing pleasure in waters where few fishing opportunities would otherwise exist.

Still-fishing with a cane pole or rod and reel is the most popular method for catching them. Worms are one of the best baits.