In Guangdong's food culture, fish fresh is an important ingredient, quite popular with diners, especially some fishing enthusiasts, but also has a strong "hands-on ability", are experts in making fish and eating fish.
However, the following Guangzhou fishing friend, in the river fished a few "strange catfish", ugly appearance, looks a bit like an Egyptian pond catfish, so that he dare not eat...
These fish should be typical catfish, with several pairs of thick and long whiskers, large mouths and small eyes, and the body of the fish is blue and black, and it looks like the shape is indeed a bit "ugly".
But are these catfish really not edible?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > is actually a delicious ingredient</h1>
The Egyptian pond mackerel, an exotic species, is indeed very unpopular today, many people do not eat it, and some anglers even catch it and discard it directly on the shore...
However, the above Guangzhou angler caught these "strange catfish" in the river channel, can not be related to the Egyptian pond mackerel this "garbage fish" - this is another exotic species, the American spotted forktail catfish, commonly known as ditch catfish, tongfish, Qingjiang fish and so on.
And, while the forktail catfish look "jet black" and somewhat egyptian pond carp, don't be fooled by their ugly appearance – it's actually a good ingredient with tender flesh and a soft texture.
Because of its rich and delicate flesh, the fish is now the perfect choice for grilled fish in many regional restaurants and is very popular in the market.
The guangzhou angler above caught up with these several "American forktail catfish".
In fact, forktail catfish in Guangdong, Fujian and other places in the fish market has been more common, in fact, is not a rare fish species, it seems that this brother is not a senior fisherman, even forktail catfish and Egyptian pond carp can not be distinguished...
(The picture above is a visual comparison of the Egyptian pond carp and the forktail, old drivers, can you tell?) ）
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > forktail catfish has invaded many rivers in China</h1>
Forktail catfish meat is rich and delicate, high economic value, its aquaculture industry developed rapidly, according to the Yangtze River Jun understand, now forktail catfish aquaculture industry has spread throughout the southwest, southeast regions, the consumer market is throughout the country.
In the process of "becoming popular" in the forktail catfish, because of the breeding escape and artificial release, this "American catfish" has also invaded the rivers and lakes in various parts of China.....
Not only the above-mentioned Guangdong, as well as coastal areas such as Fujian and Hainan, but also the inland Sichuan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places, the population of wild forktail catfish has shown signs of increasing year by year...
Even in Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi and other places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, because of the great floods in recent years, there have been cases of fork-tailed catfish invasion.
(After the great flood in the south last year, there were Hubei villagers who caught dozens of fork-tailed catfish at a time, suspected of rushing out of the upstream farm)
I believe that fishing enthusiasts in these areas should have more or less encountered this exotic species.......
Fortunately, the forktail catfish itself has a mild habit, is not a pure carnivorous fish, and will also swallow aquatic plants and algae food, causing not obvious ecological harm to the river.
However, for exotic species, Yangtze River Jun still has that sentence: Don't let it go when you catch it!
After all, in any case, the forktail catfish itself belongs to an invasive alien species, and has a certain degree of aggression, potential harm to native wild fish, various types of aquariums, once their populations flood, it will also cause a lot of ecological problems.....
Netizens, do you have this kind of "American catfish" in your local area? Have you ever caught a fish?