Clarias batrachus 
System : Freshwater
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Animalia
Chordata
Actinopterygii
Siluriformes
Clariidae
- General
- Distribution
- Impact
- Management
- Bibliography
- Contact
Common name
clarias catfish (English, USA), alimudan (Visayan, Philippines), climbing perch (English, Bangladesh), freshwater catfish (English, Malaysia), Froschwels (German), cá trèn trang (Vietnamese), hito (English, Philippines), ikan keling (Malay, Indonesia), ikan lele (Malay), Ito (Kapampangan, Philippines), keli (Malay), klarievyi som (Russian), koi (Bengali, Banglade), kug-ga (Punjabi, India), leleh (English), magur (English), mah-gur (Bengali, India), mangri (Hindi, India), marpoo (Telugu, India), masarai (Tamil, India), nga-khoo (Burmese), pa douk (Lao), paltat (Ilocano, Philippines), pla duk (Thai), pla duk dam (Thai), pla duk dan (Thai), pla duk nam juend (Thai), Thai hito (English, Philippines), Thailand catfish (English, Taiwan, province of China), trey andaing roueng (Khmer), trey andeng (Khmer), walking catfish (English), wanderwels (German), Yerivahlay (Malayalam, India), pla duk nam jued (Thai), pantat (English), kawatsi (Kuyunon, Philippines), mungri (Nepali), konnamonni (Finnish), htong batukan (Tagalog, Philippines), cá trê tráng (Vietnamese)
Synonym
Silurus batrachus , Linnaeus, 1758
Macropteronotus jagur , Hamilton, 1822
Clarias jagur , (Hamilton, 1822)
Macropteronotus magur , Hamilton, 1822
Clarias magur , (Hamilton, 1822)
Clarias punctatus , Valenciennes, 1840
Clarias assamensis , Day, 1877
Macropteronotus jagur , Hamilton, 1822
Clarias jagur , (Hamilton, 1822)
Macropteronotus magur , Hamilton, 1822
Clarias magur , (Hamilton, 1822)
Clarias punctatus , Valenciennes, 1840
Clarias assamensis , Day, 1877
Similar species
Summary
Clarias batrachus is native to southeastern Asia and has been introduced into many places for fish farming. Walking catfish, as it is commonly known (named for their ability to move over land), is an opportunistic feeder and can go for months without food. During a drought large numbers of walking catfish may congregate in isolated pools and consume other species. They are known to have invaded aquaculture farms, entering ponds where they prey on fish stocks. C. batrachus has been described as a benthic, nocturnal, tactile omnivore that consumes detritus and opportunistically forages on large aquatic insects, tadpoles, and fish.
Species Description
Clarias batrachus has a broad, flat head and an elongate body which tapers toward the tail. It is readily recognizable as a catfish with four pairs of barbels whiskers and fleshy, papillated lips. The teeth are villiform, occurring in patches on the jaw and palate. Its eyes are small. The dorsal fin is continuous and extends along the back two-thirds of the length of the body but there is no dorsal spine. The dorsal, caudal, and anal fins together form a near-continuous margin; the caudal fin is rounded and not eel-like though it is occasionally fused with the other fins. Its pectoral spines are large and robust and finely serrate along the margins with which it walks accompanied by a back and forth flexion.Their coloration is olive to dark brown or purple to black above, blue green on the sides and white below, with white specks on their rear side. C. batrachus may be easily distinguished from many of the North American Ictalurid catfishes in that the walking catfish lacks an adipose fin (Masterson, 2007; Robins, undated; GSMFC, 2006).
Notes
Clarias batrachus can survive out of water for quite sometime using its auxiliary breathing organs and move short distances over land allowing it to migrate to new water bodies (Froese and Pauly, 2009).
Lifecycle Stages
In southeast Asia, spawning period is during the rainy season, when rivers rise and fish are able to excavate nests in submerged mud banks and dikes of flooded rice fields (FishBase, 2003).
Uses
Fisheries: commercial, aquaculture: commercial, aquarium: commercial (FishBase, 2003). An important food fish that is marketed live, fresh and frozen. (FishBase, 2003)
Habitat Description
Walking catfish can be found in a variety of habitats, but they are most commonly encountered in stagnant, muddy or swampy water of high turbidity. Known to inhabit medium to large rivers, swamps, ponds, ditches, flooded fields, rice paddies, and pools left in low spots after rivers have been in flood, it is also reported to occur in intercoastal waterways of salinities up to 18 ppt. It is a tropical species with a moderate tolerance to colder waters with a reported a lower lethal temperature of 9.8°C. During cold dry months, walking catfish burrow into the sides of ponds and streams where they remain dormant until the spring rains begin (Masterson, 2007; FishBase, 2003; GSMFC, 2006).
Reproduction
Clarias batrachus engages in mass spawning migrations in late spring and early summer. Inundated rice paddy fields have been reported as favored spawning grounds over its native range. The pair manifests the 'spawning embrace' which is widely observed in other catfish species. Mating occurs repeatedly for as long as 20 hours. The pair gently nudge each other in the genital region and flick their dorsal fins; male wraps his body around the female, then the female releases a stream of hundreds to thousands of adhesive eggs into the nest or on submerged vegetation. Males guard the nests and embryos hatch in about 30 hours. Both parents guard fry for about three days, when they develop barbles visible to the naked eye and swim freely (GSMFC, 2006; FishBase, 2009, Ros, 2004c).
Nutrition
Clarias batrachus feeds on insect larvae, earthworms, shells, shrimps, small fish, aquatic plants and debris.
Pathway
Introduced into Hong Kong from Thailand for aquaculture, (FishBase, 2003).The walking catfish was imported to Florida, reportedly from Thailand, in the early 1960s for the aquarium trade (Courtenay et al. 1986).
Principal source: \r\n
Nico, L., 2005. Clarias batrachus Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
FishBase, 2003. Species profile Clarias batrachus Walking catfish
Compiler: IUCN/SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG)
Review: Pam Fuller USGS/BRD, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Program. Florida Integrated Science Center. USA
Publication date: 2010-03-27
Recommended citation: Global Invasive Species Database (2024) Species profile: Clarias batrachus. Downloaded from http://iucngisd.org/gisd/species.php?sc=62 on 20-04-2024.
General Impacts
Clarias batrachus in South Florida are known to invade commercial aquaculture facilities, often consuming vast numbers of the stocks of fishes (Robins, undated). The impacts from this opportunist feeder are probably most pronounced in small, isolated wetland ponds where walking catfish quickly consume or outcompete other resident populations to become the dominant species in the pond. Resident centrarchids (freshwater sunfish) and native catfish species appear particularly susceptible to impacts from this invader (Masterson, 2007). C. batrachus can also negatively impact native amphibian populations by preying on tadpoles. The ability of walking catfish to exploit isolated, ephemeral water bodies allows them to access tadpole prey stocks that other fish cannot reach (Masterson, 2007).
Management Info
Preventative measures: Outside of its native range, numerous countries have banned possession of the Clarias batrachus, including the United States, which has classified all members of the family Clariidae as injurious wildlife which are illegal to possess without a federal permit (Robins, undated).
