<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Five people responded to my question about catfish and their gf status, since farm-raised catfish eat mostly grain. 2 respondents hated catfish too, 1 loved it, and I got interesting comments all around. Here is what they said: *Catfish is the only fish I cannot tolerate. I stopped eating it years ago. The thought of it makes me nautious.* ------------------------------------------------ *How about chicken- I am sure they are fed grain also.* ------------------------------------------------ *Boy, that's an interesting question. I ADORE catfish and have eaten it for years. It sounds to me as if you have gotten bad catfish...it shouldn't have any smell to it at all. Are you buying fresh or frozen fish? I've used both, but I do what I do with all fish before I cook it: soak it in salted water as it defrosts (or after I bring it home from the fish market. And change the water often. This seems to get rid of any "off" taste.) I dunno, though...your question raises some interesting points, which I unfortunately can't answer...* ------------------------------------------------ *... consider how catfish are farm-raised. to be grown so closely together they need additives to be ingested that are not in "normal catfish life." things like pesticides, fungicides, etc.....you may be reacting to something not in the environment of cold water fish. i have heard via conjecture, anecdote (not provable in court) that some fish farmers, if not most, add things to water to sustain catfish life, things that would not be necessary if raised in wild. ------------------------------------------------ *I'm from Minnesota and when I moved to Dallas 24 years ago eating catfish in MN was verbotten. I finally tried it and I find it to be mushy and fowl tasting. I don't care how many people tell me it's wonderful - it's a scavenger (at least in MN). It eats dead things! Maybe that's why we don't like it!* I may give catfish one more try and use the soaking technique, but after what two people said about additives in the water and scavenging, I may chicken out on catfish, if you'll excuse the pun. I may be reacting to some additive, is my first thought. As far as scavenging goes, I bet even farm-raised catfish eat whatever they find on the bottom, too, not just their kibble. (But I eat crabs without any problem--boy, are they scavengers!) The comment about chicken was interesting too; they and other poultry are fed grain, yet most of us have no problem with eating them. So it looks as if the grain content of the catfish diet may have no bearing on why some of us do have trouble with this particular fish (although fish and chickens digest things differently, as do cattle). Our trouble with catfish may be unrelated to any gluten content, but another one of those other sensitivities so many of us have. Good luck and good health! Bobbi in Baltimore