|
Hunting, Recreational, Fishing, Investment Land For Sale in Mississippi, Delta, Ranch, Farm, Timber Land for Sale In Mississippi
|
Welcome
Thacker Mountain Lodge Land and Property Division offers catfish acreage, catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms, Delta catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms for sale and Mississippi Delta catfish farms for sale. Thacker Mountain Lodge also offers, for sale Premium Mississippi, Delta, and Mid-South, land, ranches, farms, investment, recreational, timberland, and commercial property located in the river delta. This area is referred to as the Mississippi River Catfish Delta area. Extant catfish species live in inland or coastal waters of every continent except Antarctica. Catfish have inhabited all continents at one time or another. Catfish are most diverse in tropical South America, Africa, and Asia. More than half of all catfish species live in the Americas. They are the only ostariophysans that have entered freshwater habitats in Madagascar, Australia, and New Guinea.
|
Catfish as a Food
Catfish have been widely caught and farmed for food for hundreds of years in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Judgments as to the quality and flavor vary, with some food critics considering catfish as being excellent food, others dismiss them as watery and lacking in flavour. In Central Europe, catfish were often viewed as a delicacy to be enjoyed on feast days and holidays. Migrants from Europe and Africa to the United States brought along this tradition, and in the southern United States catfish is an extremely popular food. The most commonly eaten species in the United States are the channel catfish and blue catfish, both of which are common in the wild and increasingly widely farmed. In fact, farm-raised catfish became such a staple of the diet of the United States that on June 25, 1987, President Ronald Reagan established National Catfish Day to recognize "the value of farm-raised catfish."
|
Catfish Information
Catfish are found primarily in freshwater environments of all kinds, though most inhabit shallow, running water habitats. Representatives of at least eight families are hypogean (live underground) with three families that are also troglobitic (inhabiting caves). Thus, catfishes are some of the most successful cave colonizers among fishes. One such species is Phreatobius cisternarum, known to live underground in phreatic habitats. Numerous species from the families Ariidae and Plotosidae, and a few species from among the Aspredinidae and Bagridae, are also found in marine environments.
|
Thacker Mountain Lodge
Thacker Mountain Lodge Land and Property Division offers catfish acreage, catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms, Delta catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms for sale and Mississippi Delta catfish farms for sale. Thacker Mountain Lodge also offers, for sale Premium Mississippi, Delta, and Mid-South, land, ranches, farms, investment, recreational, timberland, and commercial property located in the river delta. This area is referred to as the Mississippi River Catfish Delta area. Thacker Mountain Lodge Timber and land, Property division offers hunting and fishing property for sale. If your investment property group wants to buy mid-south hunting property, Mississippi hunting land for sale, Mississippi homes, Mississippi farms, Mississippi ranches and hunting property, Mississippi hunting property, mid-sized hunting property, or Mississippi recreational hunting property, Thacker Mountain Lodge Timber and land Property Division can help.
Call The Thacker Mountain Lodge Land and Timber Property Division today or email us at
properties@thackermountainlodge.com
|
|
|
Catfish Farms for Sale, Mississippi Catfish Farms, Mississippi Delta Catfish Farms, Catfish Farms
|
Catfish are a very diverse group of bony fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers (though not prominent in all members of this order), catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the 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. There are armour-plated types and also naked types, neither having scales.
|
|
|
Despite their common name, not all catfish have prominent barbels; what defines a fish as being in the order Siluriformes are in fact certain features of the skull and swimbladder. Catfish are of considerable commercial importance; many of the larger species are farmed or fished for food.
|
|
|
Need Mississippi hunting leases, mid-south hunting and fishing spots, Mississippi real estate, homes, farms, ranches, and Mississippi deer hunting, deer hunting land for sale in Mississippi, Thacker Mountain Lodge land and timber property division can supply what you need.
|
|
|
 Taxonomy
The catfishes are a monophyletic group. This is supported by molecular evidence.
Catfish belong to a superorder called the Ostariophysi, which also includes the Cypriniformes, Characiformes, Gonorynchiformes and Gymnotiformes, a superorder characterized by the Weberian apparatus. Some place Gymnotiformes as a sub-order of Siluriformes, however this is not as widely accepted. Currently, the Siluriformes are said to be the sister group to the Gymnotiformes, though this has been debated due to more recent molecular evidence. As of 2007 there are about 36 extant catfish families, and about 3,023 extant species have been described. This makes the catfish order the second or third most diverse vertebrate order; in fact, 1 out of every 20 vertebrate species is a catfish. Thacker Mountain Lodge Land and Property Division offers catfish acreage, catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms, Delta catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms for sale and Mississippi Delta Catfish farms for sale.
The taxonomy of catfishes is quickly changing. In a 2007 and 2008 paper, Horabagrus, Phreatobius, and Conorhynchos were not classified under any current catfish families. There is disagreement on the family status of certain groups; for example, Nelson (2006) lists Auchenoglanididae and Heteropneustidae as separate families, while the All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI) includes them under other families. Also, FishBase and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System lists Parakysidae as a separate family, while this group is included under Akysidae by both Nelson (2006) and ACSI. Many sources do not list the recently revised family Anchariidae. The family Horabagridae, including Horabagrus, Pseudeutropius, and Platytropius, is also not shown by some authors but presented by others as a true group.[1] Thus, the actual number of families differs between authors. The species count is in constant flux due to taxonomic work as well as description of new species. On the other hand, our understanding of catfishes should increase in the next few years due to work by the ACSI.
The rate of description of new catfishes is at an all-time high. Between 2003 and 2005, over 100 species have been named, a rate three times faster than that of the past century. In June, 2005, researchers named the newest family of catfish, Lacantuniidae, only the third new family of fish distinguished in the last 70 years (others being the coelacanth in 1938 and the megamouth shark in 1983). The new species in Lacantuniidae, Lacantunia enigmatica, was found in the Lacantun river in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
According to morphological data, Diplomystidae is usually considered to be the most primitive of catfishes and the sister group to the remaining catfishes, grouped in a clade called Siluroidei. Recent molecular evidence contrasts the prevailing hypothesis, where the suborder Loricarioidei are the sister group to all catfishes, including Diplomystidae (Diplomystoidei) and Siluroidei; though they were not able to reject the past hypothesis, the new hypothesis is not unsupported. Siluroidei was found to be monophyletic without Loricarioid families or Diplomystidae with molecular evidence; morphological evidence is unknown that supports Siluroidei without Loricarioidea.
|
Physical Characteristics
External anatomy
Most catfish are adapted for a benthic lifestyle. In general, they are negatively buoyant, which means that they will usually sink rather than float due to a reduced gas bladder and a heavy, bony head. Catfish have a variety of body shapes, though most have a cylindrical body with a flattened ventrum to allow for benthic feeding.
A flattened head allows for digging through the substrate as well as perhaps serving as a hydrofoil. Most have a mouth that can expand to a large size and contains no incisiform teeth; catfish generally feed through suction or gulping rather than biting and cutting prey. However, some families, notably Loricariidae and Astroblepidae, have a suckermouth that allows them to fasten themselves to objects in fast-moving water. Catfish also have a maxilla reduced to a support for barbels; this means that they are unable to protrude their mouths as other fish such as carp.
Catfish may have up to four pairs of barbels: nasal, maxillary (on each side of mouth), and two pairs of chin barbels, although pairs of barbels may be absent, depending on the species. Because their barbels are more important in detecting food, the eyes on catfish are generally small. Like other ostariophysans, they are characterized by the presence of a Weberian apparatus. Their well-developed Weberian apparatus and reduced gas bladder allow for improved hearing as well as sound production. Thacker Mountain Lodge Land and Property Division offers catfish acreage, catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms, Delta catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms for sale and Mississippi Delta Catfish farms for sale.
Catfish have no scales; their bodies are often naked. In some species, the mucus-covered skin is used in cutaneous respiration, where the fish breathes through its skin.[12] In some catfish, the skin is covered in bony plates called scutes; some form of body armor has evolved a number of times within the order. In loricarioids and in the Asian genus Sisor, the armor is primarily made up of one or more rows of free dermal plates. Similar plates are found in large specimens of Lithodoras. These plates may be supported by vertebral processes, as in scoloplacids and in Sisor, but the processes never fuse to the plates or form any external armor. By contrast, in the subfamily Doumeinae (family Amphiliidae) and in hoplomyzontines (Aspredinidae), the armor is formed solely by expanded vertebral processes that form plates. Finally, the lateral armor of doradids, Sisor, and hoplomyzontines consists of hypertrophied lateral line ossicles with dorsal and ventral lamina.
All catfish, except members of Malapteruridae (electric catfish), possess a strong, hollow, bonified leading spine-like ray on their dorsal and pectoral fins. As a defense, these spines may be locked into place so that they stick outwards, which can inflict severe wounds. In several species catfish can use these fin rays to deliver a stinging protein if the fish is irritated. This venom is produced by glandular cells in the epidermal tissue covering the spines. In members of the family Plotosidae, and of the genus Heteropneustes, this protein is so strong it may hospitalize humans unfortunate enough to receive a sting; in Plotosus lineatus, the stings may result in death. Thacker Mountain Lodge Land and Property Division offers catfish acreage, catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms, Delta catfish farms, Mississippi catfish farms for sale and Mississippi Delta catfish farms for sale. Thacker Mountain Lodge also offers, for sale Premium Mississippi, Delta, and Mid-South, land, ranches, farms, investment, recreational, timberland, and commercial property located in the river delta. This area is referred to as the Mississippi River Catfish Delta area.
Juvenile catfish, like most fish, have relatively large heads, eyes and posterior median fins in comparison to larger, more mature individuals. These juveniles can be readily placed in their families, particularly those with highly derived fin or body shapes; in some cases identification of the genus is possible. As far as known for most catfish, features that are often characteristic of species such as mouth and fin positions, fin shapes, and barbel lengths show little difference between juveniles and adults. For many species, pigmentation pattern is also similar in juveniles and adults. Thus, juvenile catfishes generally resemble and develop smoothly into their adult form without distinct juvenile specializations. Exceptions to this are the ariid catfishes, where the young retain yolk sacs late into juvenile stages, and many pimelodids, which may have elongated barbels and fin filaments or coloration patterns.
Sexual dimorphism is reported in about half of all families of catfish. The modification of the anal fin into an intromittent organ (in internal fertilizers) as well as accessory structures of the reproductive apparatus (in both internal and external fertilizers) have been described in species belonging to 11 different families.
Size
Catfish have one of the greatest range in size within a single order of bony fish. Many catfish have a maximum length of under 12 cm. Some of the smallest species of Aspredinidae and Trichomycteridae reach sexual maturity at only 1 centimetre (0.39 in).
The wels catfish, Silurus glanis, is the only native catfish species of Europe, besides the much smaller related Aristotle's catfish found in Greece. Mythology and literature record wels catfish of astounding proportions, yet to be proven scientifically. The average size of the species is about 1.2–1.6 m (3.9–5.2 ft), and fish more than 2 metres (6.6 ft) are very rare. The largest specimens on record measure more than 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) in length and sometimes exceeded 100 kilograms (220 lb).
The largest Ictalurus furcatus, caught in the Mississippi River on May 22, 2005, weighed 124 pounds (56 kg). The largest flathead catfish, Pylodictis olivaris, ever caught was in Independence, Kansas, weighing 123 lb 9 oz (56.0 kg). However, these records pale in comparison to a giant Mekong catfish caught in northern Thailand in May 1, 2005 and reported to the press almost 2 months later that weighed 293 kilograms (650 lb). This is the largest giant Mekong catfish caught since Thai officials started keeping records in 1981. The giant Mekong catfish are not well studied since they live in developing countries and it is quite possible that they can grow even larger.
|
|
|
|