agh, the pic in the OP is a little disturbing.
we had a couple catfish in our boatwell at my mom's place. one was just hanging out over a pile of eggs and the other was kind of keeping guard at the entrance to the well.
we had a get-together and one of the guys wanted to poke the female with a stick. i put a stop to that, because, well... you can't go poking innocent fish with a stick.
you're supposed to spear them.