Catfish

Catfish are ray-finned fish of the order Siluriformes, named for the prominent barbels many species have that resemble a cat's whiskers, though not every species carries them; the order contains roughly 36 families and about 3,093 described species, making it the second or third most diverse order of vertebrates. Catfish lack scales, having either smooth skin or bony armor instead, and most are bottom feeders with negatively buoyant bodies that sink rather than float, often relying on chemoreceptors to taste and smell their surroundings; the group spans an extreme size range, from species that mature at about 1 centimeter to giants such as the Mekong giant catfish and the wels catfish, which can weigh hundreds of kilograms. Catfish have been caught and farmed for food for thousands of years across many continents; in the United States, channel catfish support a 450 million dollar a year aquaculture industry centered on Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, and the fish is prepared in varied ways worldwide, fried in the American South, used in the Indonesian dish pecel lele, and cooked in stews across Nigeria.