Habitat: Enters
brackish waters; found along the shallow continental
shelf. Description: The rays of the
fins are venomous and the wound inflicted is extremely
painful. Demersal; brackish; marine; depth range 15
- 75 m. The sea catfish from Guinea are slow growing
species which reach 40 to 42 cm (approximately one
kilogram) at 6 years. The quite frequent observation
in the landings of the canoe fishery of 80 cm individuals
of A. latiscutatus and A. heudelotii,
which are speculated to be 20 to 30 years old, indicates
that their natural mortality is low. Their morphology,
with a very hard skull and strong protective spines,
as well as their habitat on muddy bottoms where turbidity
is strong, probably protects them from predation.
Reproduction: The females bare large
eggs which are incubated and develop in the buccal
cavity of the males. Their reproductive adaptativeness,
with a small number of very big eggs (ariids have
the largest eggs of any teleost group) protected by
mouth incubation, also allows a large reduction in
the early life mortality. Diet: Feeds
on benthic invertebrates buried in the mud but it
can sometimes leave the bottom to capture prey in
open water. Remarks: It has to be
noted that Marceniuk & Menezes (2007) have placed
this species in a new Genera, Carlarius,
named for Carl Ferraris for his contribution to the
knowledge of Siluriformes fishes and includes the
seven known Arius species from the west African
coastline. Arius heudeloti Valenciennes,
1840, is the type species.
West
coast of Africa: From Mauritania to Gabon
and, possibly, to Angola; in marine waters and estuaries.
Type locality: haut Sénégal.
Size:
76.0cm.TL (2ft 6¼ins)
Temp:
20-27°c (67-81°f)
p.H.
6.5-8.0.
Reference:
Froese, R. and D. Pauly.
Editors. 2009. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic
publication. www.fishbase.org, version (10/2009).
Conand, F., S.B. Camara and F. Domain
1995 Age and growth of three species of Ariidae (Siluriformes)
in coastal waters of Guinea. Bull. Mar. Sci. 56(1):58-67.
Marceniuk, Alexandre P.; Menezes, Naércio
A. (2007). "Systematics of the family
Ariidae (Ostariophysi, Siluriformes), with a redefinition
of the genera" Zootaxa 1416: 1–126. California Academy of Sciences.
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