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Related Catfish FAQs: Silurid Catfishes& Catfish: Identification, Behavior, Compatibility, Selection, Systems, Feeding, Disease, Reproduction

Related Articles: Catfishes

/A Diversity of Aquatic Life

The  Catfishes of the Family Siluridae

 

By Bob Fenner

 

    Silurid catfishes comprise 2 genera and about 100 species of Asian and European catfishes, all freshwater. Family includes the largest strictly freshwater fish, the European Wel, Siluris glanis, up to 5 meters in length, 330 kg. in weight. No spine before dorsal fin, lack an adipose, and pelvics are either small or completely absent. Nasal barbel absent as well, and have long anal fin base (41-110 rays).  

Habitat:

 

Tankmates:

 

Species You're Likely To See:

Kryptopterus bicirrhis (Valenciennes 1840), the Glass Catfish. Asia: the Mekong and Chao Phraya basins; Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. To six inches long in the wild, about half this in captivity. Feeds on insects (floating and aquatic), mollusks and worms. 

    Occasionally other Glass Catfish species of this family are offered... and I have seen Ompak bimaculatus from time to time.

Foods/Feeding/Nutrition:

 

Disease

 

Reproduction:

 

Cloze:

 

Bibliography/Further Information:

Catfishes on the Internet: http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/chordata/actinopterygii/siluriformes/siluriformes.html

Planet Catfish: http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.htm

Burgess, Warren E. 1989. An Atlas of Freshwater and Marine Catfishes. Tropical Fish Hobbyist Publications. NJ, USA. pp. 786.

Nelson, Joseph S. 1994. Fishes of the World, 3d ed.. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. NY. 600pp.

 

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