seriously. please explain how a catfish ended up in a puddle in my driveway. have photos but we are about to bag him and take him to the temple.

Catfish when it comes time to breed, leave their ponds and rivers and seek new places. This prevents inbreeding and spreads their DNA.

They can live out of water for extended periods due to the slime that they produce, but, they like to seek puddles to "re-charge" that oxygen.

The migration from their usual body of water usually starts after heavy rain. This makes their trek easier.

After they have found a new pond, they mate and then die.

We found one in the gutter outside our place located in the middle of a city. Turned out the fish had made a slippery escape from a tub full of live fish being transported to the market in a sidecar.

well i live on the beach in the northwest. no side cars, and no other ponds for him to have migrated from. he's within 30m of the gulf.

There must be a small pond near you. They have been known to travel over a kilometre.

It certainly didn't come out of the sea.

So.......either it has come from a small pond that you are unaware of, or, it dropped out of a bucket.

Take your choice.

Edited January 4, 201214 yr by KarenBravo

beady eyes and whiskers

There must be a small pond near you. They have been known to travel over a kilometre.

It certainly didn't come out of the sea.

So......l.either it has come from a small pond that you are unaware of, or, it dropped out of a bucket.

Take your choice.

well, when there is heavy rain, a temporary brackish pond does form about 500m from here.

i'm assuming that catfish have not developed cement wall climbing skills though, and that beach sand is not conducive to their trek. the bucket idea is even less likely.

mystery solved, the land owner who lives opposite us had made and stocked a new small pond in his yard last week. new to us, we didn't even know it was there. why his son didn't mention it last night when i found the fish and asked him about it is beyond me.

the fish still would have walked about 100m across grass, sand and pavement to get here. i'm impressed!

Apparently they can climb trees to get to the water on top of a palm tree.. I still don't know if I believe this or not, but would be interested to find out if someone knows?

Perhaps it's a sign Joe. Look around if there is any loafs of bread.

Perhaps it's a sign Joe. Look around if there is any loafs of bread.

funny, because there is bread in my yard. helps me when i'm hunting with my blowgun!

Perhaps it's a sign Joe. Look around if there is any loafs of bread.

funny, because there is bread in my yard. helps me when i'm hunting with my blowgun!

Oh dear , are you going to feed the multitude?

Perhaps it's a sign Joe. Look around if there is any loafs of bread.

funny, because there is bread in my yard. helps me when i'm hunting with my blowgun!

Oh dear , are you going to feed the multitude?

my family is multitude enough!

btw, i just went to look at the neighbors "pond"

it's a bowl water feature on a pedastal. i think that fish was headed in the right direction...

I worked in West Africa and caught "Wandering Catfish" they use a boney extension to their pectoral fins to help them walk / squirm for miles through wet grass. All catfish have the ability to to this and stay out of water for some time.

As for climbing trees !!! this I suspect is an Urban Myth similar to Spiders/ rats / snakes etc growing to enormous sizes resembling VW beetles and concrete sewer pipes.

I never ate any catfish that I caught, but gave them away to the locals in the village.

Woah - thanks Joe. Most gripping topic here so far this year!

R

I get them after a heavy rain and eat them.

Never heard of a catfish climbing a tree, but the travelling distances over land, yes. Personally I find it extremely creepy.

This all sounds a bit fishy to me.... .... being dying to say that all day!!!

But when I head down south to the rice growing areas of Songkhla, it's not uncommon to see fish in dry mud and suddenly "come back to life" again, when they start filling the sloughs with water to flood the rice paddies... I don't know if they are cat fish or not, ugly black things, the locals eat, ...... but please don't put on my plate!

Just another little fishy story, I brought three gold fish for my pond just before Christmas.... well, they are all gone now .... Those white birds that usually hang around buffaloes... I think found Christmas dinner and ate my fish ... they don't seem to bother the little guppies or what ever those small fish are....... but saw one of those birds around my pond for the first time... hmmm ... I think guilty!

I see lots of small brown "Birds" hanging around white "Buffaloes" - usually propping up a bar.....the white Birds you are on about are Cattle Egrets. They will readily snaffle up small fish. The rice paddie fish are a type of catfish. I beleive there are also "Lung Fish"

The Northern Snakehead of Southeast Asia can "walk" on land by wriggling and using its pectoral fins, which allows it to move between the slow-moving, and often stagnant and temporary bodies of water in which it lives.

So now we all know....

egrets will eat all of the fish in your pond, if you have one. i don't have any ponds but i do have egrets in my yard every day eating the small red millipedes and other creepy crawlies. i like these birds, slow and stealthy in the lawn and they don't bother anything i want. can't say the same for the mynas.