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Bagre panamensis (Gill, 1863)

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The Chilhuil sea catfish (Bagre panamensis), is a species of sea catfish in the family Ariidae. It was described by Theodore Gill in 1863, originally under the genus Aelurichthys. Habitat: It inhabits subtropical marine and brackish waters in the eastern Pacific region, including California, USA; Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Mexico. It dwells at a depth range of 3 to 177 m (9.8 to 580.7 ft), most often between 10 to 60 m (33 to 197 ft) and reaches a maximum total length of 51 cm (20 in). Description: Body very robust; head shield with ridges, but without granules; lips absent except at corner of mouth; only two pairs of barbels; top barbel broad, ribbon-like, reaching as far as pelvic fins; palate teeth in four patches, but fused to form narrow, continuous band; gill rakers on first arch 5-7 + 12-14; none on posterior face of first arch dorsal rays I, 7, dorsal spine without filament; anal rays 25-30; pectoral rays I, 12-13, pectoral spine with long flattened filament reaching origin of anal fin. Remarks: Found inshore, usually on muddy bottoms. Enters estuaries. Spine in front of the dorsal and pectoral fins is venomous and can cause a painful wound.

Common Name:

Chilhuil sea catfish

Synonyms:

Aelurichthys panamensis, Aelurichthys nuchalis, Aelurichthys scutatus, Aelurichthys isthmensis

Family:

Ariidae

Distribution:

West coast of Americas: From off Santa Ana River in southern California, USA, to Peru. Only rarely found north of southern Baja California.

Size:

51.0cm.TL (20ins)

Temp:

p.H.

Reference:

Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2016). "Bagre panamensis" in FishBase. April 2016 version.
Cooke, R., Acero, A., Betancur, R., Rojas, P., Cotto, A. 2010. Bagre panamensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010.
www.inaturalist.org/
biogeodb.
D R Robertson and Gerald R Allen. 2015. Shorefishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific: online information system. Version 2.0 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panamá.
Eschmeyer, W.N., E.S. Herald and H. Hammann, 1983. A field guide to Pacific coast fishes of North America. Boston (MA, USA): Houghton Mifflin Company. xii+336 p.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2019. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 12/2019 )

Family: Ariidae Back to Ident-A-Cat Click on Thumbnails

Bagre panamensis

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