"The gafftopsail catfish is blue-grey to dark brown with a light grey belly. Its appearance is typical for a catfish except for the deeply forked tail and the venomous, serrated spines. It also has a little hump that looks a little like a wave. The typical length of a mature gafftopsail catfish is approximately 17 inches. The anal fin is a few inches anterior to the tail and is white or pale blue, with 22-28 rays on it and a high, anterior lobe.[1] The pelvic fin is about six to twelve inches anterior to the tail fin. The gafftopsail catfish has maxillary barbels and 1 pair of barbels on the chin. The gafftopsail catfish looks similar to the hardhead catfish, but its dorsal spine has a distinctive fleshy extension (like the fore-and-aft topsail of a ship).
The primary food of the juveniles is unidentifiable organic matter; the secondary food is fish with smaller amounts from other trophic groups. Unlike many other catfish, which are primarily bottom feeders, the gafftopsail catfish feeds throughout the water column. It eats mostly crustaceans, including crabs, shrimp, and prawns (95% of the diet), but it will also eat worms, other invertebrates, and bony fishes (about 5% of the diet).[2] In addition to humans, predators of the gafftopsail catfish include the Tiger Shark and Bull Shark.
Gafftopsail catfish spawn over inshore mudflats during a relatively short time span (10 days) from May to August.[3] Gafftopsail catfish are mouthbreeders. The eggs are about 2.5 cm (one inch) in diameter. Males keep up to 55 eggs in their mouths until they hatch. Young are about 5 cm (2 inches) long when they hatch, and the male may continue to brood them until they are up to 10 cm (4 inches) long. The males do not feed while they are carrying the eggs or young.[4]"
Distribution and Habitat
found in the waters of the western central Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It also lives on the coastlines from Cape Cod to Venezuela
Sources
"1.^ Smith, C. Lavett, National Audubon Society Field Guide to Tropical Marine Fishes of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. Chanticleer Press, 1997, ISBN 067944601X, p. 85, 346
2.^ FishBase.org: Food and Feeding Habits Summary - Bagre Marinus see online accessed 11 March 2010
3.^ Muncy R.J., Wingo W.M.,Species Profiles: Life Histories and Environmental Requirements of Coastal Fishes and Invertebrates (Gulf of Mexico): Sea Catfish and Gafftopsail Catfish read online p. 4
4.^ Smith, C. Lavett, National Audubon Society Field Guide to Tropical Marine Fishes of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. Chanticleer Press, 1997, ISBN 067944601X, p. 85, 346
5.^ IGFA 2007 Database of IGFA angling records. IGFA, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA http://www.igfa.org/Records/Fish-Records.aspx?Fish=Catfish, gafftopsail&LC=ATR
6.^ R. O. Anderson and R. M. Neumann, Length, Weight, and Associated Structural Indices, in Fisheries Techniques, second edition, B.E. Murphy and D.W. Willis, eds., American Fisheries Society, 1996.
7.^ average of data for male and female gafftopsail catfish at Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Report 2008 accessed 7 March 2010
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