This is certainly one of these catfish that you should keep "home alone" as it is a voracious predator when it starts growing from the small cute catfish that you bought from the local fish shop (in the U.K. anyway) to the fast growing predator that you see before your eyes!.

There is a few varieties of
  Clarias batrachus, the
 normal coloured which is a
 slate grey to olive
 colouration with a white
 underbelly and an albino
 variation which unusual to
 most fish species, occurs in
 nature. The albino is of
 course white all over with
 red eye's. Another much prettier one is piebald/pink and has normal eye's.

It received its common name of the 'Walking Catfish' on its ability to walk overland from pond to pond when their original habitat dries up or after a heavy rainfall. They possess a much reduced air-bladder and their gills are stiffened to prevent their collapse when out of water and in a special part of the gill chamber are spongy arborecent (tree-like) organs growing from the upper ends of the gill arches. These and the skin surrounding them, are well supplied with blood vessels and operate efficiently in water lacking in oxygen or when the fish is out of water. They of course keep their gills closed when out of water and as long as their body is kept moist they can stay on land for a considerable length of time.
            
Their distinguishing features                                                                   
are of course its long dorsal fin ( 62-77 rays) without a spine and its long anal fin (45-63 rays). Both these fins usually have a break before the small rounded caudal fin but sometimes in odd specimens the fins of the dorsal and anal fuse to the caudal. Its pectoral spines are very strong ( 1 spine 8-11 rays) especially the leading spine which of course helps its odd lifestyle of moving about on dry land. It possess 4 pair of barbels, one pair of nasal, one pair of maxillary and two pairs of mandibular barbels.

It is native to Southeastern
 Asia but was brought into
 the U.S. in the 1960's for
 fish farming and it was out
 of one of these farms in
 Florida in the mid 60's that
 the first escape occurred and the first catch of this fish was by an angler on the 15th March 1967. 
The first escapees originated from wild stock which was exported from Thailand. It is a threat to the native fish populations in the Florida and Gulf of Mexico areas and the only enemy of this fish (apart from the anglers) is if there is a very cold winter and they can't survive the long cold spell.

As mentioned at the start of this factsheet, they are predators and very good escape artists as well so if you do fancy keeping them a tight lid is essential with large hiding places, a soft bottom ( sand or rounded gravel) and of course a large tank of 4ft or larger and outside filtration. 

The male of this species is usually more colourful than the female with a dark spot on the rear of the dorsal fin, the female does not possess this.
This of course relates to the normal variety and I'm not sure if this could be applied to the albino, but the larger girth of the female in breeding condition would set them apart.

Family: Clariidae.

Common Name: Walking Catfish.

Synonym: Silurus batrachus, Clarias magur, Clarias punctatus, Macropteronotus batrachus, Macropteronotus magur.

Country(s) of Origin: India. Pakistan.Nepal.  
                                     Sri Lanka. Bangladesh. Thailand.
                                     Burma (Myanmar). Malasia.
                                     Philippines. U.S.A. (non indigenous)
                                     Indonesia: Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumatra and
                                                Borneo.
                                     Singapore, at the southern tip of
                                                Peninsula Malaysia.


                                  
Size: 60cm (24ins) ( Should grow to about 18ins in the Aquarium)

Temp : 20-25c (68-77f )

pH.: 6.0.-7.5.

Breeding : It is reported that they engage in mass spawning migrations in late spring and early summer. Adhesive eggs are laid in a nest or in submerged vegetation and the males guard the eggs.

Feeding : In its native habitat it is a scavenger and will eat smaller fish and are opportunist feeders and so will eat just about anything!
In the aquarium they are not fussy feeders but fish of some sort should be on the menu but does not necessary need to be live food.

References: The GCRL Museum at http://lionfish.ims.usm.edu/~musweb/
                     Baensch, Aquarium Atlas1.1989.
                      
Photo Credits: FreshwaterFishes.