🐟Redtail catfish
The redtail catfish, is a large species of South American pimelodid (long-whiskered) catfish. It is known in Venezuelan Spanish as cajaro; in Guyana, it is known as a banana catfish, and in Brazil it is known as pirarara, a fusion of words from the indigenous Tupi language: pirá and arara. It is the only extant species of its genus, Phractocephalus.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
IUCN Red List assessment, 2023.
- Body mass
- 44 kg
- Body length
- 0.6 m
- Shoulder height
- not recorded
- Top speed
- not recorded
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- not recorded
Everything we know about the Redtail catfish
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass44 kgmaximum recordedFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Body length0.6 mrecord 1.35 m · FishBasetypical adultFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Record: largest individual on record
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Trophic level4.15FishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04, estimate table · CC BY-NC 4.0
DietcarnivoreaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
From trophic level 4.15 (FishBase): <2.2 herbivore, 2.2–2.8 omnivore, >2.8 carnivore.
Danger to humansharmlessFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Volume l44 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Redtail catfish yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.
Family tree
- kingdomAnimalia
- ›phylumChordata
- ›orderSiluriformes
- ›familyPimelodidae
- ›genusPhractocephalus
- ›speciesPhractocephalus hemioliopterus
- superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
- orderSiluriformes
- suborderSiluroidei
- genusPhractocephalus
All 12 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumChordata
- subphylumCraniata
- subphylumVertebrata
- superclassGnathostomata
- superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
- classActinopteri
- subclassNeopterygii
- superorderCharaciphysae
- orderSiluriformes
- suborderSiluroidei
- genusPhractocephalus
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