“Fish have over a dozen moving pieces in their skull, and they’re all connected together by joints and ligaments in these closed loops called ‘linkages’ in engineering." - Source.
This fish is easily distinguished from the various types of fish that live in freshwater swamps, ponds, and especially rice fields. In fact, it is very easy to distinguish it from its natural friend, the snakehead fish.
Below is a picture a picture of a fairly large walking catfish with several snakehead murrels (Channa striata) caught from a rice field.
The face that is flat, like being compressed, the sensory barbels, the body that looks smooth and not scaly, slimy when held, it all immediately makes you recognize it.
When it opens its mouth to pick up the air on the surface of the water, you immediately know it's there.
But you will be quite careful with the pointy spines behind the two side fins. Once hit by the fin spines, your fingers will bleed and leave pain for some time. When approached, it was often shaking its head left and right. It must have been a defensive move it had. So, if you want to catch this fish in muddy water, it's best to extend your hand from behind the slippery body of the fish, and grip it quickly by holding the two spines behind the fin with your thumb and forefinger. That way, the fish's head can no longer move from right to left to stab you with its fin spines. But the easier way to catch it, of course, is with a net or fishing line.
You must have known, it is called the Walking catfish is because the fish that are native to Southeast Asia can indeed "walk" on land. With the fins, of course. The mucus on the body of this nocturnal animal can give it some time out of the water, to cross to another pond, or to another field of rice fields, or to ditches. That's the intelligence of this one omnivorous in addition to detecting feed with its barbels, and digging mud when ponds or rice fields begin to dry up.
But what was no less amazing about Clarias batrachus were the ornaments on the skeleton, or rather, the bones of the upper skull. It's not so obvious on the small Walking catfish, but on this one, and this one found in northern Sumatra, in my village, the "ornament" is very clear. Looks like fireworks at a festive festival, to my eyes.
It was amazing, even though it was actually formed by the skeleton underneath. The head bones that are shaped like ornaments appear as white spots that seem to glow.
Awesome creature. Amazing nature!