Biology:Giant sea catfish

From HandWiki

Giant sea catfish
Scientific classification edit
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Siluriformes
Family: Ariidae
Genus: Arius
Species:
A. gigas
Binomial name
Arius gigas
Boulenger, 1911
Synonyms[1]
  • Tachysurus gigas (Boulenger, 1911)
  • Carlarius gigas (Boulenger, 1911)

The giant sea catfish (Arius gigas), also called the ewe or the marine catfish,[2] is a species of sea catfish in the family Ariidae.[3] It was described by George Albert Boulenger in 1911, originally under the genus Tachysurus.[4] It is known from brackish and freshwater in the Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Benin, Mali, Ghana and Nigeria.[5] It reaches a maximum total length of 165 cm (65 in), and a maximum weight of 50 kg (110 lb). Males incubate eggs in their mouths.[3]

The giant sea catfish is of commercial significance as a food fish; however, its populations have declined due to over-fishing, and possibly chemical pollution. Due to these factors the IUCN redlist currently lists the species as Near Threatened.[5]

References

  1. Synonyms of Arius gigas at fishbase.org.
  2. Common names of Arius gigas at fishbase.org.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2016). "Arius gigas" in FishBase. April 2016 version.
  4. Boulenger, G. A., 1911 (24 Feb.) [ref. 579] Catalogue of the fresh-water fishes of Africa in the British Museum (Natural History). London. v. 2: i-xii + 1-529
  5. 5.0 5.1 Arius gigas at the IUCN redlist.

Wikidata ☰ Q2120428 entry