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 sometimes is confused, is that the walking catfish lacks an adipose fin. It can survive 18 hours out of water.
The wels catfish, also called sheatfish or just wels, is a large species of catfish native to wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe, in the basins of the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas. It has been introduced to Western Europe as a prized sport fish and is now found from the United Kingdom east to Kazakhstan and China and south to Greece and Turkey.
Siluridae is the nominate family of catfishes in the order Siluriformes. About 105 living species of silurids are placed in 12 or 14 genera.
Silurus is a genus of catfishes native to Europe and Asia.
Synodontis nigrita, known as the false upside down catfish, is a species of upside-down catfish that occurs widely in northern Africa. It was first described by French zoologist Achille Valenciennes in 1840. The type specimen is in the Muséum National d' Histoire Naturelle de Paris.
Synodontis petricola, known as the cuckoo catfish, or the pygmy leopard catfish, is a species of upside-down catfish endemic to Burundi, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania where it is only known from Lake Tanganyika. It was first described by Belgian ichthyologist Hubert Matthes in 1959. The species name "petricola" is derived from a combination of the Latin petra, meaning stone or rock, and the Latin cola, meaning inhabitant. This refers to the rocky environment where this species is found.
The broadhead catfish is an economically important air-breathing catfish that is a native of Southeast Asia. The fish is farmed in ponds for use in human consumption in countries such as Thailand and the Philippines. However, native populations now face extinction due to man-made activities and genetic introgression due to interbreeding with escaped aquaculture hybrids.
Clarias gariepinus or African sharptooth catfish is a species of catfish of the family Clariidae, the airbreathing catfishes.
Synodontis budgetti, known as Budgett's synodontis, is a species of upside-down catfish native to Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria where it occurs in Lake Nokoue and the Niger. It was first described by Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1911, from specimens collected in Lokoja, Nigeria. The species name budgetti comes from name of the collector of the original specimen, J.S. Budgett.
Synodontis caudalis, known as the filament tailed synodontis, or the whiptail synodontis, is a species of upside-down catfish native to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was first described by Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1899, from specimens collected in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The species name caudalis comes from the Latin word cauda, meaning tail, and refers to the elongated filaments in the caudal fin of the species.
Synodontis clarias, known as the red tailed synodontis, or the mandi, is a species of upside-down catfish that occurs widely in the waters of northern Africa. It was first described by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as Silurus clarias. The original specimens were obtained in Egypt, near Cairo. The meaning of the species name clarias is not certain, but may possibly have been used to mean "bright" or "clear".
Synodontis macrostigma, known as the largespot squeaker, is a species of upside-down catfish that is native to Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia where it is found in the Cunene, Okavango, upper Zambezi and Kafue River systems. It was first described by British-Belgian zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1911, from specimens collected in the Okovango River, Botswana, by R. B. Woosnam. The species name macrostigma is derived from the Greek word makros, meaning "large", and the Greek word stigma, meaning "mark" or "spot" and refers to the large spots on the sides of the fish.
Synodontis marmoratus is a species of upside-down catfish that is native to Cameroon where it is found in the Sanage and Nyong Rivers. It was first described by Swedish zoologist and conservationist Einar Lönnberg in 1895, from a specimen collected from Bonge, Cameroon.
Synodontis melanopterus is a species of upside-down catfish that is native to Benin, Niger and Nigeria where it is found at Porto Novo and in the Ouémé, Niger and Ogun River basins. It was first described by Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1903, from specimens collected at Oguta, Nigeria, in the Niger River delta.
Synodontis nebulosus, known as the cloudy squeaker, or clouded squeaker, is a species of upside-down catfish that is native to the lower Zambezi River basin of Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was first described by German naturalist and explorer Wilhelm Peters in 1852, from a specimen collected in the Zambezi River at Tete, Mozambique. The species name nebulosus is derived from the Latin word nebulosus, meaning "foggy", "cloudy", or "full of mist".
Synodontis obesus, known as the Coas synodontis, is a species of upside-down catfish that is native to the coastal drainages of Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. It was first described by British-Belgian zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1898. The species name obesus is derived from the Latin word obesus, meaning "fat".
Synodontis ocellifer, known as the ocellated synodontis, is a species of upside-down catfish native to the rivers of northern and western Africa. It has been reported in 10 countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal. It was first described by Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1900, from specimens collected in Kunchow Creek, in Gambia. The species name ocellifer comes from the Latin word ocellus, meaning "eye", and the Latin word ifer, meaning "to carry", which refers to the black spots, possibly with white centers found on the sides.
Synodontis omias is a species of upside-down catfish native to the Niger River basin of Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. It was first described by German-born British zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist Albert Günther in 1864, from a specimen collected in Jebba, Nigeria, on the Niger River. There have been very few specimens of this species identified, and it may be the same species as S. budgetti from the Upper Niger.
Synodontis woosnami, known as the Upper Zambezi squeaker, or bubblebarb squeaker, is a species of upside-down catfish that is native to Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe where it is found in the upper Zambezi and Okavango River basins and the Cunene River. It was first described by British-Belgian zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1911, from a specimen collected in the Okavango River in the Lake Ngami district of Botswana. The species name woosnami is derived from R. B. Woosnam, the collector of the first specimen.
Silurus soldatovi, Soldatov's catfish or northern sheatfish, is a large catfish species from the Far East.
