#2169 · 🐟 fish
Channel Catfish
🇳🇱 Kanaal Meerval ·Ictalurus punctatus
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Mitchel Buckner · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © Ryan Somma · CC BY-SA 4.0
- 3. © Daniel Stange · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Below Blue Water Diver · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Mitchel Buckner · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © camronmilam · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. © Nick Loveland · CC0
- 8. © jasonrl · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. © Nicholas Cowey · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 10. © Nick Loveland · CC0
what is it?
Channel catfish ( Ictalurus punctatus ) is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States, they are the most fished catfish species with approximately 8 million anglers targeting them per year. The popularity of channel catfish for food has contributed to the rapid expansion of aquaculture of this species in the United States.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 12,748 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1818 (208 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Channel Catfish
- Nederlands
- Kanaal Meerval
- scientific name
- Ictalurus punctatus
- class
- Actinopterygii
- order
- Siluriformes
- family
- Ictaluridae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 159
- sightings worldwide
- 12,748
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1818 by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Ictaluridae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 81554, Wikidata Q836957, GBIF 5202520, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.