Physiology
Like most catfish, flatheads are benthic feeders and prefer live prey. They are voracious carnivores and feed primarily on other fish, insects, annelid worms and crustaceans.
Spawning occurs in late June and early July, the nests made in areas with submerged logs and other debris. The males, who also build the nests, fiercely and tirelessly defend and fan the clutch. The size of the clutch varies proportionately to the size of the female; an average of 2,640 eggs per kilogram of fish are laid.
The fry frequent shallow areas with rocky and sandy substrates where they feed on insects and worms such as annelids and polychaetes. Young flatheads are also cannibalistic, a fact which has largely precluded their presence in aquaculture.
Read more about this topic: Flathead Catfish
Famous quotes containing the word physiology:
“A physician’s physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric’s divinity has to his power of influencing conduct.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“The world moves, but we seem to move with it. When I studied physiology before ... there were two hundred and eight bones in the body. Now there are two hundred and thirty- eight.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“Now the twitching stops. Now you are still. We are through with physiology and theology, physics begins.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)