Re: NANFA-- Freckled Madtom Eating Behavior

matt ashton (ashtonmj2003_at_yahoo.com)
Wed, 24 Mar 2004 12:11:34 -0800 (PST)

I remeber what articles you are talking about Todd. They attempt to dispell all the old cliches of catfish being scavengers and garbage pickers, when in essence they are near apex predators....what else can eat a 50 lb flat head or blue? Even if it is not with their eyes, lateral line and the increased olfactory reception of catfish gives them such a seek out and find advantage to predation than people would assume. Such is the use of "stink" baits for catfish...and noturus arent all that different when it comes down to those aspects I would think they visualize nearly the same but they are processing so much information due to their environment they dont need it. afterall how many species of fish are blind and they feed just fine. Water is such a great medium for smell, chemoreception and audioreception compared to air. I can recall some crayfish behavior experiements where you put them in a tank with a gentle current put them at one end food at the other end and they will
find it.
you take off their eyes put everything back in with new water and they will find it in almost the same time. you take way their antenaee and do it all over again they have a much harder time but even then they still find it.

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