Bagarius

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Superclassis/Classis: Actinopterygii
Classis/Subclassis: Actinopteri
Subclassis/Infraclassis: Neopterygii
Infraclassis: Teleostei
Megacohors: Osteoglossocephalai
Supercohors: Clupeocephala
Cohors: Otomorpha
Subcohors: Ostariophysi
Sectio: Otophysa
Ordo: Siluriformes

Familia: Sisoridae
Subfamilia: Sisorinae
Genus: Bagarius
Species: B. bagarius – †B. gigas – B. rutilus – B. suchus – B. yarrelli
Name

Bagarius Bleeker, 1854: 121

Type species: Pimelodus bagarius ♂ Hamilton, 1822. Type by monotypy (also by absolute tautonymy).
References

Bleeker, P. 1854: Nalezingen op de ichthyologische fauna van Bengalen en Hindostan. Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen. 25: 1–164, Pls. 1-6.
Ng, H.H. 2010: The monophyly and composition of the Asian hillstream catfish family Sisoridae (Teleostei: Siluriformes): evidence from morphology. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 21(3): 247–278.
Ferraris, C.J., Jr. 2007: Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa, 1418: 1–628. pdf

Vernacular names
English: Goonch Catfish
ไทย: ปลาแค้, ปลาแข้, ปลาตุ๊กแก

Bagarius (Thai: ปลาแค้) is an Asian genus of catfishes (order Siluriformes) of the family Sisoridae. It includes five to six extant species and potentially one extinct fossil species, B. gigas.
Species

There are currently five to six extant species placed in Bagarius:[1]

Bagarius bagarius (Hamilton, 1822)
Bagarius lica Volz, 1903
Bagarius rutilus Ng & Kottelat, 2000
Bagarius suchus Roberts, 1983 (Crocodile catfish)
Bagarius vegrandis Ng & Kottelat, 2021 (Dwarf goonch catfish)
Bagarius yarrelli (Sykes, 1839) (goonch catfish) (doubtfully distinct from B. bagarius)

A 2021 study found the giant devil catfish (Bagarius yarrelli) to be synonymous with B. bagarius.[2]

Bagarius lica may be synonymous with Bagarius vegrandis[3]

One potential fossil species, †Bagarius gigas, is known from the Eocene of Sumatra.[4]
Distribution

Bagarius species inhabit south and southeast Asia.[5] They are distributed in the Indus drainage in Pakistan and India, east (including peninsular India) to the Red River drainage in Vietnam and south throughout Indochina including the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia.[6] B. bagarius is known from the Ganges River, Chao Phraya, and the Mekong drainages, as well as the Malay Peninsula and the Salween and Mae Klong drainages and the Brahmaputra River and Ayeyarwady River.[6] B. suchus originates from the Mekong and Chao Phraya basins.[6] B. rutilus inhabits the Red River and Ma River in northern Vietnam.[6]
Fossil record
Reconstruction of the extinct species, B. gigas, from the Paleogene of Sumatra

B. gigas is reportedly from the Eocene of Sumatra, but the age of the locale has been questioned.[4]

The oldest known confirmed sisorid fossil is B. bagarius found in Sumatra and India of the Pliocene.[7]
Description

Bagarius species have a broad head that is moderately or strongly depressed. The mouth is broad and terminal or slightly inferior. The gill openings are wide. The dorsal fin and pectoral fins have strong spines. The dorsal fin spine is smooth, and the pectoral fin spine is smooth anteriorly and finely serrate posteriorly. The dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fin lobes sometimes with filamentous extensions. The head and body is entirely or almost entirely covered by heavily keratinized skin superficially differentiated into unculiferous plaques or tubercles. Bagarius species lack a thoracic adhesive apparatus and paired fins are unplaited.[5]

Bagarius species have the same general colour pattern consisting of three darkly pigmented bands or blotches on the body. Irregularly placed spots may also be present on the body. The fin pigmentation varies from species to species, from plain, to spotted, to slightly or heavily barred.[5] Also, some B. yarelli may have a heavily spotted pattern like a Dalmatian dog that obscures the main barred pattern.[5]

In B. bagarius, the pelvic fin origin is normally anterior to a vertical line through the base of the last dorsal fin ray, while in B. yarelli the pelvic fin origin is posterior to this vertical line. Also, in most B. bagarius, the adipose fin originates far back over the anal fin, on a vertical through the base of the third or four anal fin ray. However, in most B. yarelli, the adipose fin originates near or in front of a vertical line through the anal fin origin. In B. suchus, the adipose fin originates even further back than in B. bagarius or B. yarelli. B. suchus tends to have a flatter head and body than either B. bagarius or B. yarelli.[5]

B. bagarius does not grow much past 20 centimetres (7.9 in) SL.[5] B. rutilus grows to about 100 cm (39.4 in) SL.[8] B. suchus grows to about 70 cm (27.6 in) SL.[9] Both B. yarelli and B. lica grow very large, reaching about 200 cm (78.7 in) SL.[5][3]
Ecology

B. bagarius inhabits rapid and rocky pools of large and medium-sized rivers.[10] B. suchus is usually associated with rapids in the large rivers it inhabits.[9] B. yarelli occurs in large rivers on the bottom, even with swift current, never entering small streams. It is found among boulders, often in the white water of the rapids where it apparently is indifferent to the strong current.[11]

B. bagarius is primarily entomophagous.[5] It also feeds on small fishes, frogs and shrimps.[10] B. suchus, however, is a piscivore.[5] B. yarelli feeds primarily on prawns but also eat small fishes and aquatic insects.[5]

B. bagarius breeds in rivers prior to the beginning of the annual flood season.[10][11]

B. yarelli migrates in schools. It is reported to migrate to follow its prey. It is also reported that it follows Catlocarpio siamensis during its upstream migration. Apparently the main upstream migration begins close to the peak of flood, when the current is very strong and the water is turbid.[11]
Relationship to humans

Bagarius species are marketed fresh, and are important as a food fish, but the meat spoils rapidly and can cause illness.[9][10][11] The Goonch catfish B. yarrelli has become an object of media attention as reports have surfaced of some of these fish feeding on funeral pyres in the Kali River.[12] There is speculation that some drownings have also been caused by large specimens that have "developed a taste" for human flesh from the corpses and subsequently have attacked bathers in the river. This is the subject of a TV documentary aired on 22 October 2008, as well as an episode about the Kali River goonch attacks on the Animal Planet series River Monsters.
References

Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2012). Species of Bagarius in FishBase. February 2012 version.
Ng, Heok Hee; Kottelat, Maurice (2021-02-04). "Description of Bagarius vegrandis, a new species of sisorid catfish from Indochina (Actinopterygii: Siluriformes), with notes on the identity of Bagarius bagarius". Zootaxa. 4926 (1): 134–146. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4926.1.9. ISSN 1175-5334.
Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2024). "Bagarius lica" in FishBase. April 2024 version.
Ferraris, Carl J. Jr. (2007). "Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1418: 1–628. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1418.1.1.
Roberts, Tyson R. (1983). "Revision of the South and Southeast Asian Sisorid Catfish Genus Bagarius, with Description of a New Species from the Mekong". Copeia. 1983 (2): 435–445. doi:10.2307/1444387. JSTOR 1444387.
Thomson, Alfred W.; Page, Lawrence M. (2006). "Genera of the Asian Catfish Families Sisoridae and Erethistidae (Teleostei: Siluriformes)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1345: 1–96. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1345.1.1.
Zhou, Wei; Yang, Ying; Li, Xu; Li, Ming-Hui (2007). "A Review of the Catfish Genus Pseudexostoma (Siluriformes: Sisoridae) with Description of a New Species from the Upper Salween (Nujiang) Basin of China" (PDF). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 55 (1): 147–155. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2007). "Bagarius rutilus" in FishBase. July 2007 version.
Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2007). "Bagarius suchus" in FishBase. July 2007 version.
Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2007). "Bagarius bagarius" in FishBase. July 2007 version.
Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2007). "Bagarius yarelli" in FishBase. July 2007 version.
"Mutant fish develops a taste for human flesh in India". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2023-05-15.