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SpeciesSiluriformesClariidae
Fish

🐟Walking catfish

Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The walking catfish is a species of freshwater airbreathing catfish native to Southeast Asia. It is named for its ability to "walk" and wiggle across dry land, to find food or suitable environments. While it does not truly walk as most bipeds or quadrupeds do, it can use its pectoral fins to keep it upright as it makes a wiggling motion with snakelike movements to traverse land. This fish normally lives in slow-moving and often stagnant waters in ponds, swamps, streams, and rivers, as well as in flooded rice paddies, or temporary pools that may dry up. When this happens, its "walking" skill allows the fish to move to other aquatic environments. Considerable taxonomic confusion surrounds this species, and it has frequently been confused with other close relatives. One main distinction between the walking catfish and the native North American ictalurid catfish with which it is sometimes confused, is that the walking catfish lacks an adipose fin. It can survive 18 hours out of water.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Measurements
6
vs you
≈ 1/52nd of your weight
Also called
Clarias batrachus
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2019.

Population trendStable
Key measurements
Body mass
1.19 kg
Body length
0.26 m
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
not recorded
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Walking catfish

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
1.19 kgmaximum recorded
FishBase
Details ↓

Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Body length
0.26 mrecord 0.47 m · FishBasetypical adult
FishBase
Details ↓

Record: largest individual on record

Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Trophic level
3.42
FishBase
Details ↓

Source: FishBase · v25.04, estimate table · CC BY-NC 4.0

Diet
carnivoreaverage
Details ↓

From trophic level 3.42 (FishBase): <2.2 herbivore, 2.2–2.8 omnivore, >2.8 carnivore.

Danger to humans
potential pest
FishBase
Details ↓

Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Volume l
1.2 Laverage
Details ↓

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 Walking catfish yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›orderSiluriformes
  4. ›familyClariidae
  5. ›genusClarias
  6. ›speciesClarias batrachus
Full lineage
  1. superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
  2. orderSiluriformes
  3. suborderSiluroidei
  4. familyClariidae
All 12 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
  7. classActinopteri
  8. subclassNeopterygii
  9. superorderCharaciphysae
  10. orderSiluriformes
  11. suborderSiluroidei
  12. familyClariidae
More

More about the Walking catfish

In other languages
土殺 (zh), Clarias batrachus (pl), Clarias batrachus (es), Clarias batrachus (nl), قرموط الكلاريس (ar), Лягушковый клариевый сом (ru) … and 17 more languages
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