Brown Hoplo

A visitor found this skeleton at Sweetwater Wetlands Park. It is a non-native catfish called Brown Hoplo. 

She said she had seen Cormorants and Anhinga eating them. I was concerned about that, but apparently it doesn't cause a problem for birds. It is more of a problem for other fish that it competes with for benthic invertebrates. 

It seems to have been introduced intentionally in the 1990's, probably because it is popular in Caribbean dishes. It is so bony and small (no longer than 10 inches) I do not know what part of it you eat. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hi, I went on the Audubon Bird Walk today will Bill Carrol. Here is a partial list of the birds I saw. It doesn't include herons and ibis and stuff you see all the time here. Carolina wren Blue gray gnatcatcher  Swamp sparrow  Ruby crown kinglet- feathers  House wren Red bellied woodpecker  Yellow rump warbler Sora  Redwing black bird Tree swallow  American bittern  Wilson snipe Swamp sparrow  Lesser yellow legs  Least sandpipers  Dowitchers
Read more