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Cat-elog states 100cm! When i asked that long time ago Silurus told 40cm is absolut maximum.

Fishbase says 47 cm TL, too.

Silurus wrote:Fishbase says 47 cm TL, too.

In Singapore where they are native and were formerly common the largest i ever saw in the wild was around 20cm TL. Wonder if they are a pygmy population?

What is commonly identified as "Clarias batrachus" is a gigantic mess of several very similar looking species. There are at least two in SE Asia alone. The SE Asian species don't grow larger than 30 cm SL.

Silurus wrote:What is commonly identified as "Clarias batrachus" is a gigantic mess of several very similar looking species. There are at least two in SE Asia alone. The SE Asian species don't grow larger than 30 cm SL.

I wonder if the Singapore C. batrachus might be an endemic species or sub-species.

There is also the Singapore "Mystus gulio" which is now found in only a few locations there. Mystus gulio is also supposed to be a complex of species and the ones in Singapore never grow as big as the described max size of 40 odd cm. They are max 15cm.

There is also the Singapore "Mystus gulio" which is now found in only a few locations there.

None of the SE Asian species identified as "M. gulio" (there are at least three) are the same as that of the true M. gulio (which is an Indian species).

It's very easy to see the difference in color, too. The Indian species is a bronze green in color; all of the SE Asian species are gray.

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 stunted and stayed small and bred at a small size.

Even if they can get stunted i suspect Clarias will still grow quite big for their tank size as in the wild, C. batrachus can live in very small spaces, like tiny streams and drains barly wider than the fish is long, and all the wild fish i have seen in such places have maxed out around 20cm long. Then again that may be true for C. batrachus which seems to exploit the small stream and weedy ditch niche, but gariepinus is more of a big river and lake fish so in the wild they would probably move to bigger bodies of water when they grow bigger.

So does anyone have a reasonable max size that we can set C. batrachus to? I have no problem editing the Cat-eLog entry, but without a reasonable length (in SL), I guess it will stay wrong...

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Mats

40 cm would be a good estimate.

Ok, so I've submitted a change request for 400mm SL.

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Mats

did u mean walking catfish,cause i have one at 40cm's now and is still growing pretty fast

Dr. Greenthumb wrote:did u mean walking catfish,cause i have one at 40cm's now and is still growing pretty fast

Is that 40 cm without tail [as in Standard Length measurement], and are you sure about the correct identity being ?

If it's above 40 cm SL, then maybe you could supply a photo with tape-measure [or ruler or such] next to the fish to show it's size...

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Mats

ok i thought he was bigger,i'm not even sure if it's the same type of cat but it is a claris of some sort,right now he's at about 32cm total,maby a bit more cause he was curved

if anyone can correctly identify him it would be greatly appreciated

Definitely a batrachus

I had a true batrachus that was around 45.7 cm sl and was still growing when he died. I dont have any size comparision pics tho, but he was in a 18" wide tank and was longer then the tank was wide.