Tiger catfish

Scientific name: Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum

Country: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Venezuela

Continent: South America

Diet: Crustaceans - crustacivore, fish - piscivore

Food & feeding: Carnivore

Habitats: Freshwater

Conservation status: Not Threatened

Relatives: Giraffe catfish, wels

Description: As the name suggests, these catfish have bold stripey and blotchy markings along their sides, in shades of bronze and brown. Like other catfish they have a series of sensitive whiskers or barbels that surround the mouth and allow catfish to search out their prey after dark, or in very cloudy water. The eyes are small, also indicating that this is a species that relies less on sight and more on other senses. These fish can grow to 130 cm.

Lifestyle: Tiger catfish live in river channels and areas of flooded forest in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins, where they patrol the bottom looking for food. They are most active after dark, spending their days well hidden under stones or logs

Growing up: Tiger catfish spawn in January. The eggs are fertilised as they are shed into the water. A single female can produce millions of eggs: over 150,000 eggs per kilo of her body weight. Juvenile fish spend more time in flooded forests where, in amongst the branches and roots, they are safer from predators.

Conservation news: This species is commonly caught in nets by fishermen based along the banks of the jungle rivers in which they live. While not threatened, this species takes some time to reach sexual maturity, so it is important that the wild population is not overfished.

Catfish are a very widespread and diverse family of fish. There is an electric catfish that lives in Africa and can produce a 350 volt electric shock. The upside down catfish of the Nile often swims belly up. Several species of Clarias catfish can walk across and even feed on land. Most amazing of all, there is a tiny species that lives in the rivers of South America, called the candiru, that sucks the blood from the gills of other fish. Sometimes if humans urinate underwater while swimming in the river, this little fish will, by mistake, swim up the flow of urine and get stuck inside the person's urinary tract...ouch!