Looking at a catfish’s gormless mouth, the first assumption is that they have no teeth. But, is that the case? Do catfish have teeth?
Catfish – The Basics
Catfish are equipped with distinctive whiskers on their faces, the obvious symbol of the catfish.
They also have sensory receptors all over their body. Allowing them to take the name of one of the most highly adaptive fish in the world to their environment.
Catfish eat a huge range of food. They can happily thrive on an omnivorous diet consisting of clams, snails, small fish, crustaceans, insects, and detritus on the water body’s floor. Catfish are often thought of as bottom feeders.
Catfish do not have scales associated with your typical fish. They instead have distinctive-looking barbs on their faces that help them to taste, smell, and scavenge food in even the murkiest of water.
Do Catfish Have Teeth?
Yes! Despite first appearances, catfish have a huge number of incredibly small, and sharp teeth.
Unlike a typical predator who has a layer or two of sharp, large teeth, catfish have dense layers of hundreds of tiny, sharp teeth.
These layers of tiny teeth are known as cardiform. This cardiform gives the inside of catfish mouths the texture of rough sandpaper.
Small juvenile catfish will feed by sucking up their food. Usually plant detritus or algae, to consume them before their teeth have fully developed.
Other species of catfish such as flatheads suck up small prey and crush them in their mouths before consuming them.
Whilst catfish species vary in many ways, you can always find the same cardiform structure of teeth in all species of catfish.
How Do Catfish Teeth Work?
Though catfish can eat a large array of food. They don’t usually go for anything overtly meaty so have no particular need for large teeth such as molars or incisors.
Catfish spend most of their time hunting and eating in the mud. Their cardiform teeth structure is still strong enough for them to eat frogs, crayfish, crustaceans, and even the occasional rat that’s been unlucky enough to fall into the water.
Most large predators use their teeth to slice and cut into the flesh of their prey to eat it in smaller chunks.
They usually use a row or two of teeth that run down the sides of their jaw to do this.
A catfish, on the other hand, consumes most of its prey in one gulp, without the need of chopping it with teeth beforehand.
So, why have teeth at all if the catfish swallows their prey whole? Well, the teeth are mainly there to help control how the prey is swallowed.
The powerful tiny barbs hold the prey in place and allow the catfish to turn it in their mouths so that it is easier to swallow.
What Do Catfish Teeth Look Like?
Despite first appearances, catfish mouths are full of tiny little cardiform teeth.
They look like rows and rows of really short bristles. Both the throat and mouth of the catfish are lined with these bristle-shaped sharp points.
These barbed teeth are also curved inwards, allowing them to secure wriggling prey within their jaws as they eat it.
Many people assume that because they are omnivores, catfish have big, strong teeth that can chow down on their prey with ease. Especially because of the wide variety of food the catfish can consume.
But, as you can see, the reality is quite different. Catfish suck and gulp down their prey rather than bite it when they eat.
Their teeth are so incredibly small and dense that you’d think they had very little impact on their prey at all.
However, these unique teeth make it easy for prey to slip further into the catfish’s throat. But almost impossible for them to try and wriggle free once ensnared.
As they line the whole of the throat, rather than just the mouth, these little barbs curve inwards and fix the prey in place, making it easy for the catfish to hold it in place.
How Many Teeth Do Catfish Have?
Throughout the catfish’s mouth and throat, there are rows of hundreds of little bristle-like teeth.
There are no particular amounts of teeth that catfish have, and bear in mind that there are over 3000 different species of catfish. All with slightly varying amounts of teeth, size, and habits.
The goonch catfish as an example has four separate rows of teeth. Though each of these rows has well over a hundred little bristle teeth within them, so they are less like rows and more like bristly sections of teeth.
However, there are other species of catfish that have far fewer teeth.
How Do Catfish Eat Their Food?
Catfish do not use their teeth to eat their prey in a typical sense. They do not cut or chew their food with their bite.
The way that catfish eat their prey by swallowing and sucking rather than chewing is where the misconception that they have no teeth comes from.
As mentioned previously, catfish suck in their prey with their large mouths and swallow it whole, using their hundreds of tiny barbed teeth to hold their prey in place, leaving the victim stuck inside the catfish, unable to escape.
Are Catfish Teeth Sharp?
Whilst catfish teeth may not be instrumental in capturing prey, they are far from useless! The rows of teeth that catfish have within their mouths are very sharp indeed.
Whilst catfish teeth are so small, if you were to play around with them and stick your fingers into their mouths, it would probably hurt a decent amount when trying to pull your finger free from the little barbed rows of teeth.
A goonch catfish for example would draw blood if you were being silly and its razor-sharp teeth would surely cause you harm.
Final Thoughts
So do catfish have teeth? Yes, catfish do indeed have teeth. They are small and in the hundreds, and fashioned in a way that traps prey in their mouth making it easier for catfish to swallow whole.
Want to know more about catfish and how to catch them? Check out our other awesome article: Catfish Fishing Tips: How to Catch Catfish.
