PlanetCatfish.com

Hello everyone,
I am new here. I found you guys while searching for the identity of a Catfish my son caught out of our creek. We have ponds here, with channel cats & blue cats, plus bass, crappie, brim etc etc...the usual story.
My son was out playing in the creek trying to catch fish and he managed to catch a catfish from under a rock that is one I have never seen before. It is similar to an eel, it has black on the extremes of it's fins and tail. It is irregualarly long and basically as I stated, looks like an eel with a catfish head. This fish has been in our aquarium for a month and he ALWAYS stays inside a log, not once has he ever been seen coming out into the aquarium. We have to actually pick the log up and shake it to actually see if he is still alive...lol
I am posting a few pics I tried to get of him in the aquarium, i apologize for the lack of a great picture but my entire family is really curious what the story is on this fish.. Thank you for taking a look, we sure appreciate it

This is a slender madtom ().

Margined madtom (Noturus insignis).

Edit: Note the "margins" on the fins.

Is this something common to find in a creek?

The margined madtom is not known from Arkansas. The slender madtom is.
Besides, there is a yellow spot at the nape characteristic of the slender madtom but not found in the margined madtom.

The slender madtom is a relatively common species (throughout its range) often found in creeks.

Silurus wrote:The margined madtom is not known from Arkansas. The slender madtom is.
Besides, there is a yellow spot at the nape characteristic of the slender madtom but not found in the margined madtom.

The slender madtom is a relatively common species (throughout its range) often found in creeks.

My B. Thanks for correcting me. I've never seen a slender with margines on the fins. And I didn't look to see where it was collected at.

Well, I want to thank you both for the quick responses. I have googled both and found the identical fish as a slender madtom.
Great site you guys have here, thank you very much!