Silurus wrote:Similar horror stories abound for <i>Wallago</i>, which is the Asian version of the wels.

What is the difference between Wallago and Silurus? Their body shape looks so similar.

I once saw a holiday photo from a frined who went for a trip to the Anapurna range in the Himalayas. It showed some Nepalese villagers dragging a huge catfish through the village. It looked as big as two people. I do not know the species but now suspect it may have been a goonch as this is reputed ...

Indochinese catfish have been in the news:

Thursday, 20 December, 2001, 14:06 GMT
Catfish row mars Vietnam trade talks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1716296.stm

Thursday, 10 October, 2002, 11:46 GMT 12:46 UK
Catfish row threatens Vietnam farmers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2315837 ...

Apparently this species feeds amphibiously and the mouth closing stuff may be an adaptation to this.

see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4902784.stm

There are anecdotal reports of Clarius gariepinus coming out of water to eat birds on the shore etc.

I have seen a swamp eel, Monopterus albus ...

Shane wrote:The ones we saw were a dark slate gray.

Cat-e Log says the true Indian ones are greenish, but the SE Asian ones i caught are also greenish.

You can see some pics of what is called Mystus gulio in Singapore here:

http://www.fishingkaki.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=52071

These fish all are pretty small, 10-15cm max. Caught in the dammed Pandan canal (freshwater). Long time ago i also caught similar fish in the mangrove/tidal Sembawang ...

Also, when the fish was moving its pectoral spines, it made a grunting noise which could be heard as well as felt as vibrations while holding it.

Perhaps the barbs get the spine stuck in the throat of a predator that is swallong it whole, and when it finally pulls free the predator might spit out ...

It just struck me that one possible use of barbs like that is to use as extrat sharp points with which to prick predators.

On one occasion when i had caught a "Mystus gulio", i was holding it by the body between thumb abd fore-finger using the pectoral spines to keep it from slipping through my ...

I also seemed to recall a photo from an old issue of National Geographic that had a pic of a Florida <i>Clarias</i> and it seemed that the color pattern wasn't right (the fish had a mottled pattern characteristic of <i>C. gariepinus</i>).

is it:
Idyll, Clarence P. â??New Florida Resident, the ...

Nat Geog Mekong catfish photos:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... ntcatfish/

Do a search there for "catfish" for more interestiung stuff.

According to an article in:
http://pdacrsp.oregonstate.edu/pubs/aquanews/summer98.pdf
gariepinus was introduced in Asia first in Vietnam, by the French colonials during the 1950's before uncle Ho kicked them out. It survived the Vietnam war and from there it reached Thailand in the early 80's, and ...

Looking at the serrations on the pectoral spine of a "Mystus gulio", which are very long and remind one of the barbs on a fish hook, i was wondering, what is the use of those?

Catfish with barbed/serrated pectoral spines always get stuck in hand nets when netted, making it harder for them to escape.

Silurus wrote:E-reprint (pdf) available from me.

Could you send me one too? Thanks.

It's not that rare over there.
Clarias leiacanthus is considerably rarer in Singapore.

batrachus used to be much more common than it is now. It was found even in small concrete drains in urban areas, like in drains along Bt Timah / Dunearn road, Stevens Road (and adjoining housing estates ...

Silurus wrote:

Clarias batrachus

Thanks for the ID! Its good to see they are still around in Singapore.

These are pics of a Clarias (~30cm TL) that an acquaintance caught in a shallow stream in Singapore, any idea what species?

The other fish in the top pic is of course a Channa striata .

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7820/catsnake9cr.jpg

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4062/catoverall6fl ...

see:
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/InNews/af ... h2004.html
There are reports it even attacks people!

Clarias gariepinus

Title should have been "African catfish at Beijing market". These things are everywhere.

I have also seen dead ones on sale in a fishmonger's in London Chinatown, behind Leicester Square.

I saw a large Clariid, at least a metre long, swimming lazily along the bottom of a ...

The last method above, formation feeding, is very interestng as it suggests that the fishes somehow communicate and cooperate. I don't usually think of Clarias as social animals.

In some places the Clarias are reported to prey on birds that drink at the water's edge:

Read the report that begins "Hi Bagman" about a quarter of the way down this page, about the guy fishing for C gariepinus using a dead dove:
http://www.bowfinanglers.com/Incidental.html

According to some pages ...

Jason,

I'm in the process of trying to get more confirmation as to the actual identity of the fish. I'll put it up on your site until then.

Any news on the Florida gariepinus? In Singapore the feral gariepinus grow to quite obviously large sizes so i wouldn't be surprised if florida anglers ...

In the Christian Bible, in the book of Matthew, ch.13, Jesus tells a story:

47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad ...

see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/p ... html/6.stm

The clariids in picture 6 seem to have 2 dorsal fins. What might they be?

The Thai walking catfish, Clarias macrocephalus Gunther, 1864, is economically important to Thailand. It occupies marshes and swamps that are severely endangered due to population expansion and natural populations are thought to be suffering from massive back-crossing with the C. macrocephalus x C ...

Here is a a link about the Hungarian gariepinus operation, they use geothermal energy to warm their water:

http://www.tve.org/ho/doc.cfm?aid=979&lang=English

They say catfish tastes better than sea fish, and the Dutch keep theirs in clean water for 3 days prior to slaughtering, so the mud taste of ...

Here's another archived/cached page mentioning the possible ecological impacts of introducing gariepinus in places where it is not native:

http://web.archive.org/web/20031102191104/http://cdserver2.ru.ac.za/cd/catfish/catfish/cat229a.htm

And another copy (with pictures) of the google cached link ...

Strangely the tapah has never turned up in Singapore waters, where fish from all over the world have been introduced. One might expect that given Singapore's geographical position within the Tapah's native range, it might have been introduced there, as have other regional but locally non-native fish ...

On the size question, has anyone noticed stunting in big species kept in small tanks? Like if i keep a C. gariepinus that can potentially grow to 5 feet in a 4 foot tank, will it grow up to a limit and stop or will it outgrow its tank? I kept tilapia in the 4 foot tank previously and they got ...

In rural parts of SE Asia, latrines are often built as huts over water, like over a pond or river, and there are anecdotal reports of catfish cathering under them to eat human waste when someone goes to the toilet.

The first link above also says they have been introduced to Cyprus from Israel as sport fish.

The http://edelwels.nl/ site says the Dutch fish originate from central Africa.

According to Fishbase the Central African Republic has been a major source of gariepinus introductions in other countries ...