Catfish

## Basic Catfish

Catfish are a guild of fish which comprises 1 out of 20 vertebrate builds available. The guild is known to dataminers as Siluriformes. These builds, by default, play on the bottom of river servers and usually sink due to their heavy head.

## Basic Stats and Abilities

### Intelligence

Catfish builds have very low Intelligence, as normal Actinopterygii builds usually do not specc into the stat. The Wels Catfish however, takes this to the extreme by also learning new behaviors.

### Power

Many Catfish builds with protrusible mouths attack prey builds by a Grappler-style suction attack.Decent Power-oriented builds include the Gulper Catfish, using its ability [Extendable Stomach] in order to body builds of the same weight class or even slightly heavier. and the Goonch, speccing into teeth in order to deal even more damage.

### Defense

Catfish buildss opt not to have [Scales], so it would seem like their Defense stat may seem low. However, the class with the most playable builds, the Locariidae specs into [Facial Armor]. This guild is actually an underrated venomous guild, with nearly half of all playable builds having it.

### Mobility

Catfish usually have below-average Mobility. High Mobility catfish builds include the Goonch, Piraiba, and Giant Pangasius

### Health

Catfish are usually midweight builds, thus having moderate Health. However, the guild also includes some of the tankiest builds like Blue Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Redtail Catfish, Mekong Giant Catfish, Giant Pangasius, Wels Catfish, Piraiba and Goonch. They have some of the widest weight class ranges of any bony fish build.

### Stealth

As with all other stats, Catfish have moderate Stealth. High Stealth builds include the Frogmouth Catfish, Goonch, Flathead Catfish and Wels Catfish. when in mud some catfish builds can use their colour and pattern to comuflauge in the mud.

### Signature Ability:Barbels

While taste is just as difficult to mask as smell, it requires contact with other players, thus easily blowing off your own Stealth bonus. This ability not only creates a disjointed hitbox to detect high Stealth builds, it can also give the build 3D Olguild. The catfish guild is also notable for having decent Electro-Reception, thus giving this guild three anti-Stealth abilities and the highest Perception stat of all aquatic builds.

## F tier Catfishes

Here we have the Catfish builds that waste all of their evolution points just into aestethics.

### Upside-Down Catfish

Unlike the Glass and Cory Catfishes, this build only specs a moderate amount of points into aesthetics.Upside-Down Catfishes use their mechanism of flipping upside down to confuse predator mains, thus giving them good Stealth. Swimming upside down also reduces wave drag, thus allowing this build to have higher surface Mobility and makes it easier to body insect players. Despite this, the build has excruciatingly low base stats except for Stealth, and even then, this build only works with predator builds from above. It is still completely vulnerable to builds from the sides or from below due to its small size.

## D-tier Catfishes

This time, they waste all of their points into just one single mechanic.

### Walking Catfish

A build that specs into the [Modified Swim Bladder] ability. This allows them to use the Terrestrial server.But that ability is so cost-intensive, this build did not spec into increasing base stats, especially the Mobility required for terrestrial servers. Thus, this build has low base stats and is bodied by nearly everybody and lacks the Mobility required to evade cars.

## C-tier Catfishes

We have the builds that specialized into something good, but still not very viable.

### Candiru

A build that speccs into a parasitic playstyle, sucking the blood of other heavyweight players for XP. Currently, a predator buildthath could grief a candiru is unconfirmed, but it is countered by the Pacu build, which can deal crush-type damage.

### Coral Catfish

A schooling build available to the marine server that speccs into potent venom. However, it has specced into small size.

### Channel Catfish (Standard Build)

This is most likely the build Tierzoo talks about when he placed the Catfish build in C-tier. He even metioned that the build has spines, which this build has.

## B-tier Catfishes

The builds which use a slightly more viable playstyle.

### Pleco

A high Defense build which speccs into [Dry Season Survival Kit] and pulls off the feat correctly. It as spread out to other serversand even body Manatee mains.

### Frogmouth Catfish

Having the highest Stealth of all catfish builds, This build has specced into the [Loot Lure] ability.

### Mekong Giant Catfish

A tank which sacrificed the [Barbels] ability for increased Health

## A-tier Catfishes

These builds have chosen the right stats and abilities for their build.

### Gulper Catfish

A build that speccs into [Extendable Stomach], which allows them to body and loot players the same weight class as theirs.

### Electric Catfish

A build similar to the Electric Eel which can channel the [Discharge] move.

### Piraiba

A tanky build with long barbels and decent Mobility, it can body many fish players in its native server.

## S-tier Catfishes

A specialist DPS and a generalist powerful all rounder are catfishes that made it to top-tier.

### Goonch

A build that speccs into teeth for DPS. This build has decent Mobility and no counterplay options.It has good matchups against Human players and hse been reported to grief Water Buffalo players.

### Wels Catfish

The dark horse of the catfish meta, this build had very great stats overall, including Intelligence, which it uses to learn new behaviors like beaching to reach terrestrial players and taking advantage of fish passes to loot Atlantic Salmon players.Combined with a long playtime, being able to body Human players and having been spread to other servers and you got yourself one of the best catfish builds in the game.

## References

1. ↑ http://tolweb.org/Siluriformes/15065
2. ↑ https://a-z-animals.com/animals/catfish/
3. ↑ https://animalcorner.org/catfish/
4. ↑ http://diadromy.com/2018/04/28/move-over-fluffy-atlantic-salmon-are-a-tasty-treat-for-a-new-type-of-cat/
5. ↑ https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/fish/anatomy/mouth-types/
6. ↑ https://petcentral.chewy.com/the-gulper-catfish/
7. ↑ https://deepersonar.com/uk/en\_gb/blog/the-great-fish-goonch
8. ↑ https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/catfish
9. ↑ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/six-new-catfish-species-facial-tentacles-and-all-described-in-amazon/
10. ↑ https://www.livescience.com/10615-1-000-catfish-species-venomous.html
11. ↑ https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=juTEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=greatest+ranges+in+size+catfish&source=bl&ots=WV9QAOv4dP&sig=ACfU3U3ZsZ8ApzF28W8D8MNpFFxCVPAX8A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwis9cWQhefpAhXaBIgKHX0vBYIQ6AEwF3oECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=greatest%20ranges%20in%20size%20catfish&f=false
12. ↑ http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-catfish-have-whiskers
13. ↑ https://www.gameandfishmag.com/editorial/fishing\_catfish-fishing\_gf\_aa076502a/245218
14. ↑ https://inlandaquatics.com/upside-down-catfish-care-guide/
15. ↑ https://petcentral.chewy.com/upside-down-catfish-care-tips/
16. ↑ https://www.kqed.org/science/1922038/the-mystery-of-the-upside-down-catfish
17. ↑ https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/five-facts-walking-catfish-in-florida/
18. ↑ http://atlanticseafoodmarket.com/2018/02/fish-stroll/
19. ↑ http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion\_bio/inv\_spp\_summ/Clarius\_batrachus.html
20. ↑ https://www.fishbase.se/summary/8811
21. ↑ https://www.saltwatersmarts.com/coral-catfish-cute-juvenile-syndrome-with-venomous-twist-plotosus-lineatus-5931/
22. ↑ https://www.nps.gov/miss/learn/nature/channel-catfish-ictalurus-punctatus-and-flathead-catfish-pylodictis-olivaris.htm
23. ↑ https://www.amazonxtremefishing.com/bodo-pleco
24. ↑ https://animals.mom.me/habitat-plecostomus-3481.html
25. ↑ https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-ne-manatee-armored-catfish-20190331-story.html
26. ↑ http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatfishblog/2008/11/07/introducing-a-catfish-fanciers-dream-the-frog-mouth-or-angler-catfish-chaca-bankanensis-part-2/
27. ↑ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/m/mekong-giant-catfish/
28. ↑ https://petcentral.chewy.com/the-gulper-catfish/
29. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/animal/electric-catfish
30. ↑ https://deepersonar.com/uk/en\_gb/blog/the-great-fish-goonch
31. ↑ https://www.animalspot.net/giant-goonch-catfish.html
32. ↑ https://www.africahunting.com/threads/maneater-goonch-cat-fish-of-kali-river.2821/
33. ↑ http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/01/terrestrial-hunting-in-european-catfish.html
34. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5909622/
35. ↑ https://www.animalfunfacts.net/catfish/8-wels-catfish.html
36. ↑ https://knowledgenuts.com/2013/09/15/the-giant-catfish-that-eat-humans/
37. ↑ http://www.invadingspecies.com/wels-catfish/