Catfish or water chan

Catfish, same as catfish. There are many species, the common ones are catfish (native catfish), big mouth catfish, bearded catfish (pond catfish), leather bearded catfish (Egyptian bearded catfish), Hakka commonly known as Huage fish.

Catfish, Animalia-Chordata-Chordata-Actinopterygii-Siluriformes-Siluridae-Silurus-Catfish. There are 4 whiskers on the mouth, long on the upper and short on the lower, carnivorous, mostly wild, not demanding water quality, can be artificially cultivated. The growth rate is fast, and some species can grow to be very large.

Water chan [shuǐ chán], scientific name Harpodon nehereus, a small and medium-sized marine fish of the family Cynomoridae. There is only one main bone, the meat is soft and soft like water, especially in the coastal areas of Wenzhou, Taizhou and Zhoushan in Zhejiang and the coastal areas of Fujian. [Scientific name] Bombay duck. Belongs to the phylum Chordata, class Osteichthyes, order Lanternfishes, family Cynomoridae, genus Bombay duck.

[English name] Bombay duck

This fish has only one main bone, which is soft. The rest of the fish bones are as thin and soft as whiskers, not to mention the water. Therefore, people in Taizhou, Wenzhou, and Lishui in southern Zhejiang call it "water", which means it is as soft as water. And in Ningbo, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Jiaxing in northern Zhejiang, as well as Shanghai and southern Jiangsu, it is called dragon head because the fish head looks like a dragon head, and the scientific name is the same.

Extended information

Distribution There are about 23,000 species of fish in the world, and there are more than 2,400 species in the catfish family alone, which means that more than 10% of the world's fish are catfish. Catfish are mainly distributed in tropical areas centered on the equator. In fact, they can be found on all continents except the North and South Poles.

South America The South American continent, which has the world's largest river, the Amazon River, has the most catfish species. The red-tailed duckbill, which is familiar to everyone in the aquarium world, the Amazon duckbill, a large species of the oil catfish family known as the "Amazon man-piranha catfish", the parasitic catfish, which is more dangerous than piranhas, the popular helicopter alien, the elf alien, and a wide variety of mouse fish... There are so many catfish inhabiting the South American continent that it is difficult to count!

Africa Black star hanging mouse white Among the catfish families distributed in Africa, the most well-known ones are: Platinum leopard skin Synodontismultipunctatus, electric cat Malapteruruselectricus, etc. Among them, the most popular is the hanging mouse group headed by the hanging mouse Synodontisnigriventris.

Because of the influence of the inverted rat, it is easy to mistakenly believe that the entire group swims upside down. In fact, only a small number of inverted rats swim in this way. The lifestyle of most inverted rats is no different from that of ordinary catfish. This habit of swimming upside down should actually be called "ventral movement". Their daily life is to turn their entire body upside down and swim with their abdomen close to the surface of objects. Most catfish have the habit of moving with their abdomen close to objects, but inverted rats even regard the water surface as the surface of an object, and they will swim with their abdomen close to the water surface.

Morphological characteristics Small and medium-sized marine fish. The body is long and laterally flattened, generally 15 to 26 cm long, weighing 75 to 150 grams, with very small eyes, anteriorly located, and a very large mouth cleft, with the upper edge of the mouth cleft formed by the premaxilla. The teeth on both jaws are densely grown and thin and pointed. They can fall over. The body is soft, mostly smooth and scaleless, but there is a row of larger scales on the lateral line that reaches the tail fork. The head and back are light brown, the abdomen is milky white, the lateral line is well-developed and obvious, and it runs from the skull to the center of the fin fork. There is one dorsal fin, with only fin rays and no fin spines. There is a small adipose fin behind the dorsal fin; the pectoral fin and the fin are well-developed. They are about the same length; the tail fin is trifurcated, and the middle lobe is shorter. This fish has only one main bone, and the main bone is soft. The fish bones are thin and soft like whiskers, so people in Taizhou, Wenzhou, and Lishui in southern Zhejiang call it "Shuichan", which means it is as soft as water. Ningbo, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Shanghai in northern Zhejiang call it Longtou 鲓 because the fish head looks like a dragon head, and the scientific name is the same. In the Xiangshan area of ​​Ningbo, it is called "Xiangshan Little White Dragon", and this name is still reflected in the local story. Chaoshan people call it "Teyu", and people in Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province call the silk tench "runny nose fish", which means that this fish looks like a running nose. The meat is soft and has a high water content, which is not easy to preserve or transport far. It tastes delicious when eaten fresh, and can also be processed into dried products.

Growth environment

Habitat: Lives in the middle and lower layers of warm oceans. It has poor mobility. It often lives in shallow sea mud bottom environments.

Food: Omnivorous, feeds on small fish, shrimps, and benthic animals.