The Firewood Catfish aka Shovelnose Catfish is a large catfish that reaches sizes of up to five feet long; however the body is elongated and the fish don’t weight very much compared to their length. They actually look like they are starving.
The firewood catfish has a flat head with very very long barbels. Which you can plainly see in the picture above and they are native to the Amazon and Orinoco River basins.
This specimen was actually caught by a fisherman in California. So obviously someone has released a store bought aquarium fish into the wild. This is illegal and various exotic can cause havoc with native species.