Abstract The present study describes the struc- ture of the barbels in larval and adult African catfish. The African catfish has four pairs of barbels. The two types of barbels appear in first-day larvae, without taste buds. The barbels of the third-day larvae had slight folding and their taste buds had few microvilli. In the fifth-day larvae, the taste buds were concave and their microvilli were condensed at the periphery and loose- ly arranged centrally. Taste buds of the seventh-day larvae appeared as volcano-like elevations with alternative arrangement. In the thirteenth-day larvae, taste buds were placed on the epidermal papillae and they pos- sessed large and small microvilli. The adult catfish barbels consisted of an epidermis, dermis and a central rod of cartilage. The flask-shaped taste buds were scattered among the epidermal cells. By SEM, the epithelial surface appeared as circular whirlpools, the center of each whirlpool was a Mulber- ry-form taste bud. By TEM, the taste buds consisted of light, dark and basal cells. Interdigitations between light and dark cells and unmyelinated nerve fi- bers were found in between basal and light cells. Light cells had membrane- bound vesicles. Basal cells had a ruf- fled appearance and unmyelinated nerve fibers were noticed among the basal cells. Synapse-like structures were seen in the basal region of the taste buds; due to convergence of these structures we suggest that the dark, light, basal cells and unmylinated nerve fibers act as a modifier in the transmission of taste information from receptor to central nervous system in the dark.