What kind of fish was it?

Hi everyone, I took my uncle out fishing on crescent lake and dead lake (florida) . As we were piddling around mid-day, my uncle said to me:what's that? I looked in the water and saw a fish swimming very slowly. It looked like a catfish from the surface. I caught the fish in my fish net. When I got it in and looked at it, I have never seen anything like it. It was about 4lbs. and looked like an ancient fish. The scales on this fish looked like a crocodile, but it had a sucker type mouth. This thing was a brutal looking fish. I did not have a camera with me, so no pics. Can anyone tell me what it was? I did not want to put it in the live well with the crappie, as it looked a little sick.
Any help or comments would be appreciated.
Thanks, Patrick

Maybe a carp or a buffalo??

Or a sturgeon- I've seen one or two that small (stored in alcohol in jars)

Sturgeon, dangerous fish really last year one killed someone when they were speeding through the water one jumped out and slammed into this lady and it killed her. They are rock hard fish.

With big scales and a sucker mouth , it has to be a Buffalo.
1perchjerker

Well, I spoke to a marine biologist today and he said the fish was an armored catfish. He showed me over 30 pictures of the ones he has seen in florida. And the fish I caught in the net was an exact match to a one of the photos.
He indicated that that are really close to 50 different type species of these fish. All the years I have been fishing in florida, I had never seen one. He said that lake monroe is full of them. They tend to like shallow runs in creeks or moving water. From what I was told, you don't catch very many on a hook as they don't eat baits like most fish. Thanks for all the help.

Orinoco Sailfin Catfish (Pterygoplicththys multiradiatus)
There are over 50 species of armored catfish native to the streams of South America but have become established in Florida living in steams, canals and ponds. They now occur in Florida after being release from aquariums. They don't appear to be causing in trouble with any native species. These are small fish rarely growing larger than two foot long and they are members of the Callichthyidae family. Armored catfish have been known to travel over land for considerable distances! They walk by pulling themselves with the pectoral fins. They have a secondary breathing system such as lungfish, gar, or bowfin do, in which air is swallowed and the oxygen from that air is taken up by a network of fine capillary blood vessels in the wall of the intestines.
Armored catfish live almost exclusively in moving water and almost never in standing water. They feed on small animals such as water fleas and small pieces of carrion. They are mostly active at night when they root around the bottom looking for food. Atleast one member of this family of catfish has a mouth that forms a sucker which is used to cling to stones and water plants. This allows the catfish to hold onto stones even in strong current while feeding on the algae from the stones surface!
Very little is known about the breeding habits of the armored catfish since even in captivity none have been seen breeding. The female will deposit as many as 250 eggs on a stone where they adhere. The young hatch on one week.
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...atfish-two.jpg

Now that's a wierd looking catfish!!

Looks like a big freshwater oscar. Algae eater?

looks like a plecocostamas to me, which is a very common aquarium alge eater. i dont have in my tanks, but i dont need them either as i filter bout 800 gal per minute

Yes, that picture looks just like the fish I had in the net. Boy, I would hate to see or deal with a monster size. The thing that really amazed me was the scales on the fish. Head to tail the scales were just brutally thick.
Hey, chock one up for learning. Let's not forget about bowfin (mudfish) though. Had a friend pull one out of the water with his fingers in it's mouth over 10lbs. Nevertheless, he ended up with super nasty cut's. When I catch one , I cut the line. I hate to fish at stickmarsh with shiners in certain areas. Cause those nasty rascals will hit that shiner as soon as a bass will.
Thanks again for the help and comments.

You only lip a bowfin once :)

that's definitley a Pleco. Very common in aquarium shops.

Florida is over-run with non-native fish in their southern waters, including Oscars. i can testify to how good they taste too :D Some fine eating. I'd take them over crappie anyday.
Great part about the non-natives is that there is no limits on them and most of them, at least the cichlids (Oscars, Mayans, Tilapia) are fine eating.

thats a new one on me, never heard of a armored catfish

Thanks for the education. I've never seen one.

Great info. I had never heard of an armored catfish before. I guess it is true that you learn something new everyday!
Blake