Catfish, Howies Scuba

Fish Identification Perth WA

Shore Diving

Catfish

Catfishes (order Siluriformes) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores (species that eat dead material on the bottom), and even to a tiny parasitic species commonly called the candiru, Vandellia cirrhosa... (Wikipedia)

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Eel Tailed Catfish aka Estuary Catfish

(Cnidoglanis macrocephalus)

This Eel Tailed Catfish was seen at Rockingham DT hiding under one of the plane wrecks. This was a fair size approx. 1 meter. At this point I had only seen this once at the DT, I had seen one at Rottnest but was slipping through some sea grass so difficult to get any pictures.

The next two photographs were a nice surprise as the Eel Tailed Catfish had been generally quite elusive.

Dived the Wreck Trail in August 2011, and for a change the vis was quite clean, at the boat at 18 meters saw this little guy slipping under the boat and to my surprise when I lit up the gloom there was a school of these hiding in the dark.

Dived the DT again a few weeks later and it was awash with these Catfish, there were dozens of juveniles all around the wrecks, these next four shows one of the Catfish creating quite a stir, I am unsure if it was foraging for food or trying to create a smoke screen to keep me at bay so it could slip away, and slip away it did, right over the edge of the boat and far away.

The last four photographs for this fish where taken at Robbs Jetty New Years Day 2012 and I have to say I was made up.

It's not impossible to see an Eel Tailed Catfish during the day but its supposed to be quite rare as they are night feeders.

Well on this day they where all out celebrating the New Year, the was approx. half dozen around Robbs openly and furiously disturbing the sand, making little troughs, again I am not sure what process is happening here but they were not distracted by my presence, so I am guessing they are foraging for food.

Maybe they could of possibly been cleaning themselves, I have seen other fish dart into the sand and scrape their scales along the sand in what looks like some cleaning process...... who knows ???

Video

Striped Cat Fish

(Plotosus lineatus)

This large school of Striped Catfish was taken also at Rockingham DT just outside the plane and, the second picture of the school was taken inside the plane, I would not of seen them if I did not have a torch this day, so always a good idea to have a torch with you.

These two pictures both of the same isolatory catfish where taken at Robbs Jetty hiding underneath the pipe halfway down the dive site.

This school of Striped Catfish photographed at Robbs Jetty.

On this day we originally saw this school just inside the end of the pipe (right), Also in the pipe was a juvenile Eel Tailed Catfish, which is a common experience at this pipe.

One of the best sights whilst diving is a school of Striped Catfish.... its like liquid ball morphing, rolling turning in on itself.... great to watch and its amazing how many can fit into a small area.

Tumour ?

These 4 photographs taken of the same Catfish appear to show some type of tumours growing on this fish.

I do not have a clue to the reasons for this, but just sad really.

IF YOU'RE NOT GOING DOWN: THEN WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GOING