The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know. We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know fun food facts we will look at Catfish.

The Facts: Catfish are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbs, which resemble a cat’s whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores (species that eat dead material on the bottom), and even to a tiny parasitic species commonly called the candiru, Vandellia cirrhosa.

• June 25th is National Catfish Day.
• Catfish are raised in fresh water ponds only about four to six feet deep.
• Farm raised catfish are taught to eat feed pellets that float on top of the water.  Wild catfish are bottom feeders.
• One catfish can lay up to 4,000 eggs a year per pound of body weight.
• Young catfish are called “sac fry”  because they still live off of the food supplied by the yolk sacs.
• When catfish reach 4 inches long they are called “fingerlings” (the size of an index finger).
• Catfish are harvested in nets when they weigh about one to one and a half pounds.
• About 95% of the nation’s farm-raised catfish is raised in Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, and Louisiana.
• Catfish is now the 5th most popular fish in America.
• Catfish is available all year round.