Bagridae

noun

Distribution: Africa and Asia (to Japan and Borneo). A spine before dorsal fin. Dorsal soft rays usually 6 or 7 (rarely 8-20). Adipose fin with high interspecific variability in size. Serrated pectoral spine. Scaleless. Barbels usually four pairs; well-developed. Some valued as food fish; others as aquarium fish. Maximum length of about 2 m attained in Chrysichthys grandis of Lake Tanganyika (Ref. 7463). Family Claroteidae (Berra 2001) was carved out of the traditional Bagridae to reflect a monophyletic group of African catfishes. Two subfamilies are recognized, Claroteinae and Auchenoglanidinae, which together contain more than 90 species in 13 genera. Distribution includes the Nile River basin and most of west and central Africa south to the Tropic of Capricorn, including the east African lakes. Includes Auchenoglanis, Chrysichthys, Leptoglanis, and Parauchenoglanis. Another family taken from Bagridae is Austroglanididae to accommodate the southern African genus Austroglanis and its three species (Ref. 36739).

The family Bagridae belongs to the Class Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) and the Order Siluriformes. It contains 30 genera and 210 species. It may be found in Brackish, and Freshwater environments and is primarily Primary freshwater. Some members of this family are used in the aquarium trade. Reproductively, most members of this family are nonguarders. The main mode of swimming of adult fish in this family is anguilliform. Compared with other fish, the activity level of this family tends to be sluggish. Members of this family have been dated back to the lower Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary period. This family may be found from 55° n to 12° s and 18° w to 140° e. Etymology of this family name: Related to the Mozarabic voice "Bagre" that is taken from Greek, pagros = seabream