African sharptooth catfish
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-10
A large air-breathing African catfish able to move overland between waters, widely farmed, and a major invasive outside its native range.
Safety
Injury while handling fish — Can cause injury needing treatment
The pectoral spines are strong, serrated and can lock in an extended position, causing deep and readily infected puncture wounds.
What reduces it: Support the fish from underneath well clear of the pectoral fins, wear gloves, and use long pliers. Clean any puncture thoroughly and seek medical advice.
African sharptooth catfish is one of the most adaptable large freshwater fish in the world. It has an accessory breathing organ — an arborescent structure above the gills — that lets it take atmospheric oxygen, survive in near-anoxic water, and remain alive out of water for extended periods in damp conditions.
It uses that ability actively. The species can move overland between water bodies on wet nights, which is one reason it colonises new habitat so effectively and why it has become a serious invasive in Brazil, parts of Asia and elsewhere following aquaculture escapes.
In southern Africa it is a major angling species, known simply as barbel, fished at night on the bottom, and it fights with a heavy stubborn power that belies its unglamorous reputation.
Identification
FishingHQ holds no photograph of this species whose identity and licensing it can vouch for, so it is not showing one. Misidentified fish photographs teach identification wrongly, and a picture with an unchecked caption would be worse than none. The identification points below are what to look at instead.
- Scientific name
- Clarias gariepinus
- Family
- Clariidae
- Water
- Freshwater, Brackish
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- East & Southern Africa, West Africa, North Africa, South Asia
- Long, cylindrical, scaleless body with a very long-based dorsal fin running almost to the tail.
- Broad flattened bony head with four pairs of barbels and small eyes.
- Strong serrated pectoral spines, and a rounded tail.
- Dark olive to grey-brown mottling above, paler beneath, with no adipose fin.
Size
- Typical
- 2–8 kg (4.4–18 lb)
- Large
- 12–25 kg (26–55 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 170 cm and 60 kg
Lifecycle and reproduction
Fast-growing and long-lived, tolerant of a very wide range of conditions. Its ability to breathe air and to move overland makes it exceptionally persistent and, outside its native range, exceptionally difficult to remove.
Spawns during the rains in flooded shallow margins, with eggs scattered over inundated vegetation. Breeding is triggered by rising water and is highly productive.
Feeding and senses
An omnivorous nocturnal opportunist taking fish, invertebrates, plant material and carrion. Groups sometimes herd prey cooperatively in shallow water, which is a genuinely unusual behaviour among catfish.
Hunts at night and in turbid water using barbels, taste and lateral-line detection rather than sight, which is why scented baits fished static on the bottom are the standard approach.
Through the year
Breeding follows the rains; feeding continues year-round with peaks in warm periods. Air-breathing lets it occupy waters that become hypoxic seasonally.
Distribution
Africa: almost Pan-African , absent from Maghreb, the Upper and (most of the) Lower Guinea and the Cape province and probably also Nogal province. Asia: Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and southern Turkey. Widely introduced to other parts of Africa, Europe and Asia. Several countries report adverse ecological impact after introduction
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
A major southern African angling species fished at night with scented baits on heavy bottom tackle, and an important food and aquaculture fish across the continent. Its significance in angling terms is size, power and availability in waters that hold little else. Outside its native range the species is a regulated invasive and moving live fish is both damaging and generally prohibited.
Handling and returning
The serrated pectoral spines cause severe puncture wounds and can lock outward; the fish is extremely strong and slippery. Support the body from beneath, avoid gripping behind the pectoral fins, use gloves, and never attempt to hold a large one against your body.
A catfish that keeps going out of water, and a spine profile of its own
This species has a feature that changes the handling problem entirely: an accessory breathing organ that lets it survive out of water for extended periods and move overland. A landed sharptooth catfish is not a fish running out of air. It is fully capable, fully mobile, and it will keep moving for as long as it takes.
WHAT THAT MEANS PRACTICALLY. A fish laid on the bank does not settle. It thrashes, it crawls, and it does so while carrying stout pectoral spines. Most injuries in this fishery involve somebody reaching for a fish that has moved from where they put it.
THE SPINES ARE STIFF, SERRATED IN SOME INDIVIDUALS, AND CAPABLE OF DEEP PUNCTURES. Clariid spine wounds are not associated with the venom apparatus of the ictalurids, but the puncture is deep, dirty and made in warm fresh water, which is a reliable recipe for infection. Any puncture from this fish needs proper cleaning and watching.
THE SKIN IS SCALELESS AND SLIMY, which has two consequences. The fish is hard to hold, so people grip harder, which is when the spines find them. And the slime coat is the fish's barrier against infection, so dry hands and a dry bank strip its protection.
HANDLE IT FLAT AND WET. Support the fish on a wet surface, hold across the body behind the pectorals with the spines oriented away, use long pliers, and return it promptly.
AND THE BIOSECURITY DIMENSION IS SERIOUS. This is one of the world's most widely introduced freshwater fish and its air-breathing and overland movement are precisely why introductions establish. Never move one between waters, and follow the local instruction where it is a listed species.
Authoritative guidance
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
- Check Clean Dry — biosecurity guidance for water users — GB Non-native Species Secretariat (Conservation authority)Relied on for: That air-breathing and overland dispersal ability contribute to establishment success in introduced freshwater fish, and that live movement between waters is the primary vector.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
An air-breather that walks between waters, and the most tolerant fish in this catalogue
African sharptooth catfish occupy a wider range of conditions than any other species in this catalogue, and the account is best given as a list of the things that do not exclude them.
LOW OXYGEN DOES NOT EXCLUDE THEM. Like the snakeheads, this catfish carries an accessory respiratory organ — an arborescent structure above the gills — and breathes atmospheric air. Stagnant, warm, turbid, deoxygenated water that would kill almost anything else is ordinary habitat.
DRYING DOES NOT ENTIRELY EXCLUDE THEM EITHER. The species can survive in mud and in very shallow residual water, and can move overland for short distances in damp conditions using the pectoral spines and body flexion. A pool that shrinks does not necessarily lose its catfish, and adjacent waters are connected in wet weather in a way a map does not show.
SO THE HABITAT IS EFFECTIVELY EVERY WARM STILL OR SLOW FRESH WATER IN THE RANGE: rivers, floodplains, swamps, lakes, reservoirs, irrigation canals, dams, temporary pools and human-made water bodies across Africa and the Middle East, with introduced populations well beyond.
WITHIN A WATER THEY ARE BENTHIC, NOCTURNAL AND CATHOLIC. They work the bottom and the margins at night, locating food by barbel, taste and the lateral line rather than by sight, which is why turbidity is no obstacle. The diet is omnivorous to an extreme degree.
THE FLOODPLAIN IS THE PRODUCTIVE PART OF THE HABITAT. Seasonal flooding opens enormous areas of shallow warm vegetated water, and the species exploits it hard for feeding and reproduction, retreating to permanent water as levels fall — the flood-pulse pattern the tigerfish record describes, from the other end of the food web.
AND THE TOLERANCE IS EXACTLY WHY IT IS AN INVASION RISK. Widely farmed and widely introduced, the species establishes readily wherever water is warm enough, and what may be done with a captured fish differs sharply between jurisdictions. That is a matter for the competent authority.
Scientific evidence
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Habitat association, depth range, salinity tolerance, temperature range, spawning season and reproductive mode recorded for the species.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment and life-history account, including the habitats the species depends on and the pressures on them.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where to go next
How it is caught
- DeadbaitingScented baits fished on heavy bottom tackle at night.
- LedgeringScented baits fished on heavy bottom tackle at night.
What these connections rest on (2)
Practitioner consensus — 2 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Deadbaiting
A practitioner claim about how Clarias gariepinus is commonly fished, following from where and how it feeds.
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practitioner accounts of fishing for african sharptooth catfish.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Practitioner treatment of the methods used for african sharptooth catfish and comparable species.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Ledgering
A practitioner claim about how Clarias gariepinus is commonly fished, following from where and how it feeds.
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practitioner accounts of fishing for african sharptooth catfish.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Practitioner treatment of the methods used for african sharptooth catfish and comparable species.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it lives
- Lowland riversPersists in warm, poorly oxygenated african waters by breathing air.
- Lowland stillwatersPersists in warm, poorly oxygenated african waters by breathing air.
What these connections rest on (2)
Scientific evidence — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Lowland rivers
A habitat association for Clarias gariepinus taken from the environment and distribution data on its FishBase summary.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The environment, depth range and habitat description recorded for Clarias gariepinus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Lowland stillwaters
A habitat association for Clarias gariepinus taken from the environment and distribution data on its FishBase summary.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The environment, depth range and habitat description recorded for Clarias gariepinus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where you will find it
- Lake Victoria and the Rift Valley lakesA widespread air-breathing catfish of the lakes and their inflows, tolerant of the low-oxygen shallows that other species cannot use.
- The West African coastWidespread in the lagoon, delta and lower river systems of the coast, tolerant of the low-oxygen conditions they can produce.
What these connections rest on (2)
Scientific evidence — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Lake Victoria and the Rift Valley lakes
A distribution association between an animal and a described water body, which is what the `inhabits` predicate is for — the kind of water rather than a named mark.
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment and habitat account for the species, including the river or lake system it occupies and the pressures acting on it.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, size and life history recorded for the species in the system concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
The West African coast
A distribution association between an animal and a described water body, which is what the `inhabits` predicate is for — the kind of water rather than a named mark.
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment and habitat account for the species, including the river or lake system it occupies and the pressures acting on it.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, size and life history recorded for the species in the system concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Understanding this fish
- Dissolved oxygen and fishThe counterpart to that record's crucian carp example, arrived at by a completely different evolutionary route. A crucian survives anoxia by switching its metabolism and excreting ethanol; this catfish simply breathes the air above the water. Two answers to the same problem, and comparing them is what makes the problem legible.
- How fish breatheAn accessory arborescent breathing organ above the gills, which is why this fish persists in drying pools, muddy channels and aquaculture ponds at densities and temperatures nothing else tolerates — and why it is farmed so widely across Africa and Asia.
What these connections rest on (2)
Scientific evidence — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Dissolved oxygen and fish
A species joined to the mechanism it is a worked example of, written only where the species demonstrates the mechanism unusually clearly rather than where it is merely subject to it.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded environment, respiration, oxygen tolerance, feeding biology, growth, longevity and distribution of the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Conservation assessment, recorded threats and population trend of the species named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How fish breathe
A species joined to the mechanism it is a worked example of, written only where the species demonstrates the mechanism unusually clearly rather than where it is merely subject to it.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded environment, respiration, oxygen tolerance, feeding biology, growth, longevity and distribution of the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Conservation assessment, recorded threats and population trend of the species named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sources for this page
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth and environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Clarias gariepinus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The Least Concern assessment for Clarias gariepinus, assessed 20 June 2018.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.