Animal
Boy Hooks A Rare All-White Catfish With Stunning Pink And Purple Highlights While Fishing
It’s unknown if it has albinism or leucism.
On June 28th, Edwards Tarumianz luckily reeled in a giant fish, but he and the rest of the crew were more impressed by its stunning hue instead of its monstrous size. Catfish are generally brown with dark spots, but the 15-Year-Old caught a lifetime as he hooked an all-white one.
The catfish was white, but it had pink and purples coloring around its fin and face, possibly due to either albinism or leucism.
Captain Richard Simms, the guide of the charter that day, shared images of Edwards and his catch on Facebook with the caption: “You may catfish for the rest of your life and never catch, or even see, another fish like that. I’ve been catfishing seriously for 30 years, guiding for 17 of those and that’s the first albino to ever come in my boat.”
Biologists from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency told news outlet Field and Stream they could not determine which genetic condition Edward’s fish has.
Albinism is a condition where pigment is absent in the skin and hair and is found among several animals, including humans. Accordingly, Leucism tends to reduce pigmentation leaving the animal pale or with patches of reduced coloring. Besides, pure albino animals will naturally have pink eyes, nails, scales, and skin as the coloration comes from blood vessels.
“Regardless, we all agree that it is a great and rare catch,” a TWRA Spokesperson told the outlet.
While such sightings are rare in the animal kingdom, volunteers in 2020 saw sea turtles nests on a South Carolina beach, stumbling upon a White Sea turtle as it makes its way across a publicly accessible beach. Likewise, an albino jaguar cub with white, red eyes was rescued in Columbia in December 2021, the first of its kind to be found in the country.
Officials spotted the cub in the Aburra Valley metropolitan area but transferred it to a nearby conversation park for medical treatment.
