Ictalurus punctatus
Exotic catfish from North America, raised in fish farms and pay lakes. A hard fighter, it eats anything and already appears loose in rivers of the upper Paraná.
Also called: bagre-americano, bagre-do-canal, catfish, channel catfish
Native to North America, where it is one of the most farmed and fished fish, the channel catfish was brought to Brazil for fish farming and is now common in pay lakes in the South and Southeast. It prefers clean, well-oxygenated water, but lives well in reservoirs and tanks. It eats small fish, crustaceans, mollusks and insects. In the upper Paraná there are already wild records, in the São Francisco Verdadeiro River (PR), and Goiás and Minas rules treat it as exotic. For anglers it is a bottom fish, active at night, that fights with strong runs.
Smooth body without scales, blue-grey to olive on the back and white on the belly, with scattered dark spots on the flank (clearer in juveniles). Four pairs of barbels around the mouth. Deeply forked tail. The African catfish has a rounded tail and a long dorsal fin without a spine.
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Each card shows the day's index (0 to 100) and, below it, a strip with the index for each hour, from 0h to 23h. from poor to excellent.
Exotic, native to North America. Raised in fish farms and pay lakes; recorded in the wild in the upper Paraná (PR) and listed as exotic by the Goiás rules (Paranaíba and Araguaia-Tocantins) and by Minas Gerais.
Habitat: Pay lakes, farm ponds and reservoirs; in rivers, deep pools with sand or stone bottoms.
introduced in
states
Paraná, Goiás, Minas Gerais
Warm months, October to March; eats less in winter.
Night and twilight. Feeds more at night and at dusk; in a pay lake it also feeds by day.
Tolerates cold, but feeds little below about 15 °C.
A cold front stops the bites for a day or two.
Dark nights tend to produce more.
Often becomes active when the water starts to cloud.
Little effect in a lake.
Moderately sensitive.
Little effect.
Bottom, 1 to 5 m.
natural baits
accessories
Strong-smelling bait on the bottom, late afternoon and at night. Follow the pay lake's rules.
Summary of the regulations we found, with the source for each. Rules change; before keeping or transporting fish, check with the state environmental agency.
Conservation: In its native range, the global IUCN assessment is Least Concern (LC, Feb 20, 2012).
In Goiás the channel catfish is in Annex II of the state rule: exotic, allochthonous and hybrid species may be collected, killed and transported without size or bag limits, even with the zero transport quota for native fish.
Source: IN Semad-GO nº 17/2026, art. 5º and Annex II (exotic, allochthonous and hybrid species)
Introducing an exotic species without a technical opinion and license is a federal environmental offense. This includes releasing a fish from a tank, pay lake or aquarium into a river or reservoir.
Source: Lei federal nº 9.605/1998, art. 31, and Decreto federal nº 6.514/2008, art. 25
At a pay lake, follow the house rules. In the wild, do not release exotic fish somewhere else.
White, firm flesh with no intermuscular bones; fried as fillets, breaded or smoked.
Length-weight relationship W = a·Lb (a = 0.00525, b = 3.13; FishBase). It's an average: a fat or lean fish can vary by 10% to 20%.
estimated weight
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The season weights (months), the time of day and the sensitivities (cold, pressure, moon, wind, rain, tide, strong light, murky water and noise) are the app's editorial estimates, based on the literature below and on the field experience of anglers and guides. They are not official data nor a measurement made for this species, and they may vary by region and year. Closed seasons and legal rules appear in the rules section, with the norm and a link.
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