Programming Visual Basic .NET

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The animal on the cover of Programming Visual Basic .NET is a catfish. Catfish can be found all over the world, most often in freshwater environments. Catfish are identified by their whiskers, called “barbels,” as well by as their scaleless skin; fleshy, rayless posterior fins; and sharp, defensive spines in the dorsal and shoulder fins. Catfish have complex bones and sensitive hearing. They are omnivorous feeders and skilled scavengers. A marine catfish can taste with any part of its body.

Though most madtom species of catfish are no more than 5 inches in length, some Danube catfish (called wels or sheatfish) reach lengths of up to 13 feet and weigh as much as 400 pounds. Wels catfish (found mostly in the United Kingdom) are dark, flat, and black in color, with white bellies. They breed in the springtime in shallow areas near rivers and lakes. The females leave their eggs on plants for the males to guard. Two to three weeks later, the eggs hatch into tadpole-like fish, which grow quickly in size. The largest recorded wels catfish was 16 feet long and weighed 675 pounds.

Darren Kelly was the production editor, Jeffrey Holcomb was the copyeditor, and Rachel Wheeler was the proofreader for Programming Visual Basic .NET. Matt Hutchinson, ...