These have habits somewhat like the black bass. They make nests and guard over them and their young. They spawn in June, and are exceedingly prolific. The young grow rapidly, and should be transported about the time the mother leaves them, while they are still in schools. As food, there are few better fish to eat than the blue catfish, while the yellow variety, though not quite so dainty, is equally satisfying to the cravings of hungry nature. They dig out a room two feet across in the solid mud at the bottom or sides in the stream or pond, and deposit their eggs in that, and lay over them and fan them with their fins until they hatch, which takes place in eight or ten days. They leave a hole open as a sort of door to their hatching chambers to give them egress and ingress.