Channel catfish
Scientific name: Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque, 1818)
Overview
The channel catfish, known informally as the "channel cat", is a species of catfish native to North America. They are North America's most abundant catfish species, and the official state fish of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Tennessee. The channel catfish is the most fished species of catfish in the United States, with around 8 million anglers angling them per year. The popularity of channel catfish for food has contributed to the rapid expansion of this species' aquaculture in the United States. It has also been widely introduced to Europe, Asia and South America, and many countries consider it an invasive species.
From the Wikipedia article “Channel catfish”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Conservation status
Least concern on the IUCN Red List, as recorded on Wikidata, citing The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2.
Where it lives
Common names
Names in other languages (8)
- Chinese
- 斑点叉尾鮰
- French
- barbue de rivière
- German
- Getüpfelter Gabelwels
- Japanese
- アメリカナマズ
- Persian
- گربهماهی کانال
- Portuguese
- bagre-americano
- Russian
- Канальный сомик
- Spanish
- bagre de canal
Related animals
Sources
-
Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: FishBase.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — conservation status, names in other languages. Q836957, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “Channel catfish”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — Ryan Somma, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
- Range map — Andrew69., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026