blue catfish
Ictalurus furcatus (Valenciennes, 1840)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) is a large species of North American catfish, reaching a length of 65 in (170 cm) and a weight of 143 lb (65 kg). The continent's largest catfish, it can live to 20 years, with a typical fish being between 25–46 in (64–117 cm) and 30–70 lb (14–32 kg). Native distribution is primarily in the Mississippi River and Louisiana drainage systems, including the Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Arkansas Rivers, the Des Moines River in south-central Iowa, the Rio Grande, and south along the Gulf Coast to Belize and Guatemala.
An omnivorous predator, it has been introduced in a number of reservoirs and rivers, notably the Santee Cooper lakes of Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie in South Carolina, the James River in Virginia, Powerton Lake in Pekin, Illinois, and Lake Springfield in Springfield, Illinois. It is also found in some lakes in Florida.
The blue catfish can tolerate brackish water, and thus can colonize along inland waterways of coastal regions. It is considered invasive in some areas, particularly the Albemarle Sound and Chesapeake Bay.
Wikipedia contributors, Blue catfish; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:56:54.001686+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Ictalurus furcatus (Valenciennes, 1840)
- Name authority
- (Valenciennes, 1840)
- Common name
- blue catfish
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Siluriformes
- Family
- Ictaluridae
- Genus
- Ictalurus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: no · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderSiluriformes
- familyIctaluridae Gill, 1861
- genusIctalurus Rafinesque, 1820
- speciesIctalurus furcatus (Valenciennes, 1840)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Ictalurus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Río Verde CatfishIctalurus mexicanus (Meek, 1904) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Yaqui CatfishIctalurus pricei (Rutter, 1896) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Ictalurus nazas Avila-Treviño, Cardoza-Martínez, Alonzo-Rojo & Pérez-Rodríguez, 2025 | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Ictalurus australis (Meek, 1904) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Balsas CatfishIctalurus balsanus (Jordan & Snyder, 1899) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Headwater CatfishIctalurus lupus (Girard, 1858) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Ictalurus meridionalis (Günther, 1864) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Chapala CatfishIctalurus ochoterenai (de Buen, 1946) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| channel catfishIctalurus punctatus (Rafinesque, 1818) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Pimelodus furcatus Valenciennes, 1840 Valenciennes, 1840 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=275329 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3PB7V. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.