View allAll Photos Tagged CATFISH)
So I'm using a very-cheap cobbled-together telephoto set-up for now, until I can replace my good telephoto, so this image is dark, noisy, and soft. But I thought I'd share just based on the giant catfish this bird has caught, and the pretty powder-blue flowers.
Large Catfish. Photograph.
Written on reverse:
This is the 44lbs cat Chick caught year b.4 last. The largest we caught last year was 27lbs 42 in. long.
This is a Sterba's corydoras (Corydoras sterbai), a popular freshwater aquarium catfish native to the Guaporé River region between Bolivia and Brazil.
Photographed from our aquarium on December 8, 2025
This improves on my previous interpretation of the catfish concept, as coined by Raphy a while back. Mine has evolved into a smooth but sporty coupe. Taking advantage of digital, a swanky metallic yellow paint was a must!
A delicate catfish is painted on the pot. Painting at the cabin while watching it snow.
According to the Truckee Weather, we will get 3' of snow with 6' at higher elevations. Sierra ridge winds are expected to exceed 100mph with gusts of 50mph at my elevation. The summit will be closed with snow falling 2" per hour tonight, tomorrow 3" per hour with whiteout conditions. This should be fun watching the waves out there on the lake as they reach heights of 3 to 5 feet. All tucked in with groceries, painting supplies, etc. Thank goodness for the generator. Hoping that my husband can join me later in the week.
This was from last years breeding season. Seems that the catfish were plentiful at Pine Lake last year. The year before it was bass. Who knows what this year will bring.
This was the fun day at the river with www.flickr.com/photos/kimleedesigns/
and www.flickr.com/photos/captured_echoes/
We got into the water, echoes of 2 husband's warnings about NOT walking on the rocks with equipment because they are slippery. But of course, you HAVE to walk on the rocks for a picture. My 3 companions spied this guy and his son hauling a HUGE catfish through the water in his t-shirt. I tried to make my way over to him, but in the end, asked if he would come to US, as we are 4 women doing a 100 strangers project. Dad was only too eager to have his photo taken. He said he'd struck the catfish with a rock, but later he told one of the girls that the fish was already beached No matter....it was enormous and he was so proud of it, and his SON was so proud of HIM. This is #7 in my 100 Strangers Project. Tony and his son (GREAT kid, I just don't feel good about putting his name up) asked if anyone had a camera phone because he wanted to send the picture home. One of my friends obliged.
One of the 4 of us got a fabulous photo of the inside of the catfish's mouth. I wish she'd post it....I want to see it!
Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at www.100strangers.com/
Earthquakes - more horrifying than lightening and typhoons - were thought to be caused by the movements of giant catfish.
While Typhoons and Lightening have patron gods (Fuujin and Raijin respectively) who are respected enough to be appeased, so cataclismic is the history of Japanese earthquake disasters perhaps, that earthquakes are not deified, but attributed to the maleficence of a big black fish.
Japanese catfish, or namazu, are or were thought to be, large lazy, bottom-dwelling fish with little culinary value who, for their part feel jealous of the admiration humans have for other fish species. Earthquakes were thought to be caused by the movements, or jealous malisciousness of giant catfish at the bottom of the sea, or beaneath the ground.
These catfish were held in place however by the god Takemikazuchi who is enshrined at two shrines in Ibaraki prefecture, including Kashima Jinguu (Imperial Shrine) in Kamisu City.
The Shinto deity uses an enourmous rock (whose tip can be seen in the shrine grounds - most of the rock is buried), his sword, or a giant gourd to prevent the catfish from moving.
The rock, the most famous means of keeping the catfish in places, is called a Kanameishi or keystone.
However, in moments of lapse, or while on holiday to Izumo in October - which is called the Godless-Month since all Shinto Kami are said to make the trip to Izumo - the giant catfish moves with horrendus consequence.
In the 6th century book of poems, the Manyoshu (book of ten thousand verses) there is a poem which reads
"The keystone may wobble but it will not become unstuck so long as the God of Kashima Shrine is with us."
Reading this poem three times was believed to be a protection from earthquakes by 19th century dwellers in Edo (Tokyo).
The Giant Catfish was depicted in many Ukiyoe (pictures of the floating world). The genre is known as "Catfish-pictures" but only 300 survive since they were banned by the Edo government.
As well as depicting the subjugation of the giant catfish by the God and the Key stone rock, they also showed (as in the picture above) house builders taking a different attitude to the catfish. In the above picture the group of construction workers top left do not participate in subjugating the Catfish. In another picture construction workers are shown worshiping or thanking the catfish for the profits that they earned after an earthquake. In another picture construction workers are seen helping the catfish in a tug of war between the catfish and Takemikazuchi, helped by representatives of the general population.
After the great Tokyo earthquake of 1855 the catfish is also depicted as being responsible for redistributing wealth from rich to poor, and became regarded as a world repairing deity (Yonaoshi Daimyoujin).
So in the end it is probably true to say that Japanese religion, particularly Shinto, can be trusted to see a positive side to nature, even the most horrific, even in the face of great human loss and tragedy.
The above image is believed to be in the public domain. The above text is my interpretation of internet recsources such as Japanese wikipedia and these two blog posts (in english)
historyofgeology.blogspot.com/2011/01/namazu-earthshaker....
historyofgeology.blogspot.com/2011/03/historic-earthquake...
And the source of the above photo (in Japanese)
www.jcsw-lib.net/namazu/html/namazu/lime/006.html
Analysis
The theme of a natural calamity being held in check by a giant rock is also found in the Shinto creation myth. Izanami, the primal female that gave birth to all of creation, dies when she gives birth to the god of fire. Izanagi, her husband, kills the god of fire, and goes to visit his wife in the underworld where he finds her rotting form terrifying and flees, trapping Izanami in the underworld with a giant rock. Thus trapped, Izanami promises to kill 1000 people a day. Her husband responds that he will allow for 1500 people a day to be born.
The connection between the belief in the catfish and the Shinto creation myth, is reinforced since it is one of Izanagi's sons, born from the blood of the god of fire (that killed his mother, killed by his father) dripping onto rock, that holds the earthquake subduing keystone in place.
I asked my neighbours for their thoughts concerning the earthquake. One said that with the long history of earthquakes in Japan fear of them is built into their system, and at the same time their destructive power is seen as inevitable.
Perhaps the feeling is that earthquakes like death are going to come. All that one can do is postpone them　by villigence and attempt to have faith in natural creation after they are gone.
The earthquake in North East Japan seems to get worse and worse.
Catfish skull in the fish section of the osteology hall in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. The skeletons in osteology are behind glass which makes them difficult to shoot and keep out the reflections on the glass.
These catfish ponds near the Golden Triangle Regional Airport near Starkville, Mississippi make cool patterns that remind me of the work of Piet Mondrian.
Why do they call online deceivers catfishes? I think they are lovely creatures. The fish not the people. One of my peppered catfishes. I like them even if they are bottom feeders. You can tell the weather is horrible outside can't you?
NS' first widecab Dash 9, 8889, leads 33J west at Iles after making a setout at Shops. The 8889, which has recently been repainted into Horsehead Black, is looking good for being nearly 21 years old.
NS 8889
NS 9160