Mystus gtuttatus, also known as fish picking, sesame seeds, plum blossom picking, Xijiang catfish. It belongs to the order Catfish, family Catfish. It is a warm-water fish distributed in the Pearl River system of China.
Body length, lateral flattening. The head is flattened and the snout is blunt. The mouth is wide and curved. The eyes are larger. There are 4 pairs of whiskers, the maxillary whisker is the longest, and the end reaches the base of the ventral fin. The dorsal fin spines are short and the posterior margin is finely serrated. The pectoral fins are flattened and long, the leading edge teeth are weak, and the posterior margin teeth are thick. The adipotentic fins are tall and long, and the trailing edge is free and rounded. The caudal fin is bifurcated and the upper lobe is slightly longer. The body side has spots of irregular size. It is a scaleless fish with hard spines and barbs on its pectoral and dorsal fins, and its serrated teeth are sharp.
Inhabiting the bottom of rivers, it is a carnivorous fish, there will be inter-individual residual food, eating crustaceans, aquatic insects and small fish and shrimp, the individual is larger, common 1 to 2 kg, the largest 10 kg. The meat is tender, fresh in taste and numerous, making it an important economic fish in the Pearl River system. It is a valuable economic fish in the rivers of Guangdong.
The spotted midge has a migratory habit of retrograde reproduction and will swim upstream downstream. In recent years, due to the factors of barrage dams blocking the migration channels of candidal flies, coupled with river pollution and many other factors, the number of cantharids has decreased sharply, the resources have seriously declined, and the country has designated it as a "vulnerable" variety. As the catch increases, the wild resources of the cantharid are becoming less and less.
In recent years, due to the decline of spotted midge resources, river fishing alone can not meet the growing needs of consumers, so the market price of cantharids has been rising, 4 to 5 times higher than the price of California perch and spotted forktail catfish, and even a price of more than 1,000 yuan.
Commonly known as Xijiang tong fish, its flesh is tender and delicious, with few bone spurs and large individuals, it is one of the four major river fresh of Xijiang and Beijiang.
Xijiang tong fish is known for its delicious and crisp, but for making wing soup, it needs to be stocked in a reservoir with clear water for about two months, during which no feeding materials are fed, so that natural living water circulates in the body of the tong fish, until the impurities in the fish body are completely discharged, and then thinly sliced and soaked in the boiling hot fin soup with fish bones added. At this time, the fish meat can reach the delicate and refreshing, in-mouth realm.