Some readers might be scoffing at this week's blog topic, saying or thinking something to the effect of, "How is catfish exotic or disgusting?! It's barely even unusual, or worse than any other type of fish." And yes, I understand that opinion. However, I think it still (barely) qualifies. A significant amount of people think that catfish are dirty, revolting fish, not decent enough for human consumption. You always hear people sniping about them being bottom feeders, for example, and therefore chock full of foul toxins. Or, at least in the U.S., there's still a perception that catfish is something only country bumpkins, or rubes eat-- civilized, cosmopolitan people don't lower themselves to eat this filthy creature. So that's my justification. Plus, as we'll get into, some of these opinions don't actually hold up to factual scrutiny.
Catfish are an amazingly diverse animal--they live on every continent on Earth, save Antarctica. Their adult body sizes range from a small of a few centimeters (the Amazonian candiru) to the 3 meter long (about 10 feet), 650 pound (about 295 kilos) Mekong giant catfish of Southeast Asia. Nearly all of them are freshwater dwellers, but a few species can live in saltwater. The fish's common name comes from their tendril-like projections around their mouths, called barbels. Clearly some folks think these make them resemble a whiskered cat face. In general catfish have excellent hearing, and not-so-great eyesight. Some species can even do something akin to smelling and tasting using their bodies. Most have rigid spines in their dorsal and pectoral fins, which can be used for stabbing prey or would-be predators. Occasionally they have venom in these spines, to add to their dangerousness. Most dramatically, some species in Africa can generate electric fields, like the electric eel. Which they use for attacking prey or for defense. These catfish aren't capable of killing an adult human, but its 350 volts can certainly be literally stunning. The ancient Egyptians even these electric shocks as a treatment for arthritis, using the younger ones, whose shocks are more minor. People eat catfish in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Here in the U.S. they're seen as a Southern staple, or a rural one, mostly. The typical method of preparation is usually breading and frying, but other cultures like to put them in soups and stews.
I want to digress for a paragraph to discuss the miniscule candiru catfish. This species lives in the Amazon Basin of South America, and adults lengths range from 5-17 cm. (about 2-7 inches). One kind, Vandellia cirrhosa, is a parasite, living in the gills of other fish, usually a larger type of catfish. But the most infamous aspect of the candiru is what it allegedly does to humans. Since non-Native Amazonians encountered the species, in the early 1800's, stories have abounded about the tiny fish's habit of swimming up a person's urine stream (sometimes even jumping and swimming up it out of the water), and lodging within the urethra in the penis or vagina. Then the creature's spines make removal difficult to impossible. Supposedly the only "cure" for afflicted men was to cut off their penises. Many scientists thought these stories were just legends, but then in 1997 a doctor named Anoar Samad removed one from an unidentified man's penis. Records, video, and the offending candiru itself were preserved as proof. Case closed, then. Or was it? A marine biologist, Stephen Spotte, investigated this phenomenon in the late 1990's. Some traits of the candiru are clearly fake--no fish could swim up a urine stream, out of the water even--that's just basic fluid dynamics. Also, Spotte did some tests, and found that candiru are not attracted by ammonia, meaning they wouldn't be attracted by urine. Instead they seem to find a host fish by visual cues. Finally, Spotte interviewed Dr. Samad, and checked the records and the preserved candiru. The alleged victim's story was suspicious, since he said it swam up his urine stream. Also, the purported candiru itself was probably too big to fit in a urethra. Finally, Dr. Samad said he'd broken the spines off the embedded candiru to remove it, but the preserved one was intact, with spines still on it. All in all, Spotte stopped short of calling this event a hoax, but he did conclude it was highly questionable and problematic. He characterized the odds of having a candiru swim up a person's urethra as being the same as being, "Struck by lightning while simultaneously being eaten by a shark." Also, I'd always heard the legend as being a danger for men, and the horrible thought of having one's penis lopped off. But it seems like the candiru would be more dangerous for women, since the vagina's considerably roomier than a urethra. Moving on, some posit that this myth came about from mistranslation of the Native Amazonians' languages, and perhaps confusion over why men often used gourds to protect their penises while in the water. (They were probably to protect versus piranha, or other larger, toothed fish.) Or maybe the Native Amazonians just decided to mess with their foreign visitors, and tell them a scary tall tale.
Catfish: I haven't had catfish in many years, so I'm relying on my memory. My most notable experience with it was in Iowa. There was a restaurant which was perched right on the lake where they raised the catfish. Alas, I can't recall the name of the establishment. Anyway, it was an all-you-can-eat situation, and I did my best. The fish was breaded and fried. And it was good--maybe not the best freshwater species I've had, like trout, but respectable. I remember it tasting maybe a bit gamier than some fish, but in a positive way. Like I said, I had no trouble finishing many of them, and quite enjoyed the dinners there. As I've mentioned, I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to fish, shellfish, etc., so it's a rare time when I don't like eating something that lives in the water. So a low bar, but catfish passed this test with no problems.
I also learned that the minor insult "chucklehead" is an alternate name for a catfish, mostly in the Southern U.S. Why this is more insulting than being compared to say, a bass or sunfish or something I don't know.
Furthermore, the notion that catfish is unhealthy appears to be bunk. This fish actually has more protein, and less fat and calories than salmon, and many other common food fishes. It also has decent amounts of B vitamins, selenium, and omega fatty acids. Most notably, the catfish's habit of bottom feeding doesn't translate into more toxins for the consumer, or at least, less so than most other fish. The catfish that are typically eaten are young, and relatively small, meaning they have much less mercury than larger, older fish, like say, swordfish. (I guess if you eat the giant, over 100 pounders they probably have more mercury, but they're clearly not often caught and served.) True, breading and frying them in oil will increase the fat and calories, but that method is also often used for other fish species. If you broil, bake, or grill catfish they're actually quite healthy. And even a fried one every now and again isn't that bad. So if you like catfish, enjoy, with a clear conscience.
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