While checking the minnow traps that I set in southern Illinois, I found that I caught a fish that I had not previously come across. The Brown Bullhead thrives in a variety of habitats, including lakes, ponds, and slow-moving streams with low oxygen or muddy conditions. In many areas of the United States they are opportunistic bottom feeders.
The species has few natural predators and is not popular with anglers in most areas (albeit very popular in some, such as the Oneida Lake area of Upstate New York, where it is featured each Spring by restaurants and the fish is a local delicacy) so it has thrived.
Their diet consists of algae, leeches, worms, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, crayfish, other smaller fish species and fish eggs. Brown Bullheads are typically nocturnal feeders. These fish have poor eyesight and are heavily reliant on their sensitive barbels to locate their food. They are omnivorous are said to eat almost anything that fits in their mouth.
Averaging 8 to 12 inches as adults, they have protective coloration to avoid predation. As a mode of physical defense against predators, they have a sharp spine on the leading edge of their dorsal and pectoral fins. To use this adaptation to avoid predation, Bullheads stiffen the spine while being attacked, impeding the predator’s ability to swallow while simultaneously releasing a venom to sting and burn the predator.
The Brown Bullhead is also widely known as the “Mud Pout,” “Horned Pout,” “Hornpout,” or simply “Mud Cat” – a name also used with the other Bullhead species.
