Barbel run

[turtle lover]

Have anyone heard of the barbel or catfish run in the Okavango delta?

[Birger]

I have read in The Fishes of Rhodesia by Graham Bell-Cross (1976) mentions "great shoals of squeakers in the middle of the river" .(Near the bottom) Probably mixed species, It does not say if it is seasonal or not.

Birger

[racoll]

As you probably know, "barbel" are

Clarias gariepinus

. Maybe add this as a common name?

[Birger]

Hah, yes I will.

I confused myself with skreeubaber...confusing the baber with barbel.

The same book also does mention for

Clarias gariepinus

after heavy downpours they have extensive migrations and talks a little of it.

Brian Marshall in The Fishes of Zimbabwe and their Biology also mentions migrations.

Birger

[Birger]

I have now added barbel in common names.

[Silurus]

There was an interesting paper on pack hunting by the Clarias undertaking the migration:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

I have been lucky and saw around 50 Clarias gariepinus swimming together in the surface in the Okavango in Mars 2008. The fishes was around 20 cm, and i don't think they was hunting. I thought i had some pictures, but I couldn't find it.