What Do Catfish Eat? A Detailed Introduction to Catfish Feeding Habits

What do catfish eat? Catfish are carnivorous fish, and their prey consists mostly of small fish such as Hemiculter leucisculus, crucian carp, gobies, topmouth gudgeon, common carp, and loach, as well as shrimp and aquatic insects. They mainly swallow their food whole, and their teeth serve mainly to keep food from escaping.

Catfish are very voracious; juveniles weighing around 500 grams already devour large numbers of crucian carp, common carp and the like. They are suited to living in water at 20-25°C, generally have no scales on the body, and have a skin surface covered in mucus, a flat head and a large mouth, with four barbels on the upper and lower jaws, the upper ones long and the lower ones short, which they use to detect taste.

Juvenile catfish feed on zooplankton and molluscs, among which the larvae of aquatic insects and shrimp are their delicacies.