Catfish

 The catfish form an order of whiskered, scaleless fishes, Siluriformes, that have been living primarily in freshwater environments since their appearance in the fossil record during the late Cretaceous.

Humans alternately spurn and prize catfish as a food. Some people dismiss it as a garbage-eating, pollution-contaminated bottom feeder, or as having tasteless, or unpalatably earthy-tasting, watery meat, while others hold it in high esteem for its succulent flesh and mild flavor. In Chinese Food Therapy, catfish has a very similar function to that of carp, as both fish are used primarily for replenishing nutrients in malnourished patients, promoting lactation in nursing women, and for promoting edema to correct water metabolism imbalances. However, unlike carp, which tonifies spleen and stomach qi, and unlike loach, which tonifies kidney yang, catfish nourishes yin.