Commonly called catfish or bullhead catfish.

Distribution

The brown bullhead is found in the fresh waters of eastern and central North America, from the Maritime provinces to Florida, and westward to southern Saskatchewan, Missouri, and Texas. It occurs across southern Canada from Saskatchewan to the Maritimes. The brown bullhead has been introduced to western North America and Europe. In Atlantic Canada the brown bullhead exists only in New Brunswick and mainland Nova Scotia.

Physical Characteristics

The bullhead can also be identified by the following:

• a thick rounded body, heaviest toward the front;
• a broad, large, somewhat flattened head;
• sharp, sawtoothed, spines at the base of the dorsal and pectoral fins. These spines can be "locked" in an erect position;
• the tail or caudal fin is square and there is an adipose fin (small fin on the back in front of the tail);
• its colour is dark brown to olive green on the back; its sides are sometimes mottled with dark blotches and the belly is cream coloured;
• there are no scales but the skin has many taste glands.

In Nova Scotia it seldom grows more than 30 cm (1ft) long and 0.5 kg (1 lb) in weight. Bullheads weighing as much as 2.7-3.6 kg (6-8 lb) have been caught in Ontario.

Facts About Bullheads

The spines at the base of the dorsal and pectoral fins can be "locked" into an erect position. This is thought to help protect the bullhead against predators by making it much harder to swallow.

Brown bullhead take many kinds of bait and can be easily caught by anglers. They are best fished with worms at dusk.

The flesh of the brown bullhead is very tasty. They are reared commercially in the southern U.S.

Brown bullheads are extremely resistant to pollution. In areas of heavy pollution they can be the only fish species present.

Natural History

Brown bullheads usually live on the bottom in the shallow, weedy, muddy areas of lakes or large slow-moving streams. They can tolerate higher water temperatures and lower oxygen levels than many other fish species.

Brown bullheads feed on the bottom at night, using their barbels to search for food. They eat a variety of foods including insects, fish eggs, leeches, mollusks, worms, algae, plants, and small fishes. Young bullheads feed mainly on insects and plankton (tiny organisms suspended in the water).

Bullheads spawn in the late spring when water temperatures approach 21øC. One or both parents excavate a shallow nest in a protected area of mud or sandy bottom. Spawning occurs in the daytime. Several thousand cream coloured eggs are deposited in the nest. The parents care for the eggs by fanning them with their fins and physically stirring them up.

After hatching, the young catfish are jet black and resemble tadpoles. They swim in a "school" and are protected by their parents for several weeks until they are about two inches long.

The brown bullhead usually matures at age 3 and lives for 6-8 years. They are eaten by the chain pickerel and other members of the pike and perch families.

Published With Funding from the Canada-Nova Scotia Cooperation Agreement on Economic Diversification, Resource Competitiveness Program.