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Red-Tailed Catfish

Red-Tailed Catfish line art illustration (click image to enlarge)

Red-Tailed Catfish full color illustration (click image to enlarge)

Artist's notes:

The Red-Tailed Catfish was completed on 11.7.2010. After a few trips to the flooded rainforest exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences, I decided this catfish would make a good drawing. So I did some sketches, took some photos and composed the layout for this drawing. This was the first catfish I've drawn, and I'm undecided if I may try another some day.

Information about the Red-Tailed Catfish:

The Red-Tailed Catfish is a long-whiskered catfish native to the rivers and streams of tropical rainforests of South America. These fish can grow very large, even up to 5 feet in length. Despite this, they make popular additions to aquariums. Like other catfish, it spends most of it's time on the bottom of their environments. Because of their large size, they are considered a game fish and are much sought by sportspeople when fishing. One reason this fish grow so large is it's enormous appetite, and it always seems to be prowling for food. In the wild the catfish feeds on freshwater crustaceans, smaller fish and even some types of fruit that falls into the water.