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Hippocampus Bildarchiv (1) Henk Heessen (3)

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. Habitat: Enters brackish waters; found along the shallow continental shelf. 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. Etymology: The specific name heudelotii: In honour of Heudlott, a French botanist. 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.

Smoothmouth sea catfish

Tachysurus heudelotii, Bagrus goreensis, Tachysurus mercatoris, Arius mercatoris, Arius heudelotii.

Ariidae

West coast of Africa: From Mauritania to Gabon and, possibly, to Angola; in marine waters and estuaries. Type locality: haut Sénégal.

76.0cm.TL (2ft 6¼ins)

20-27°c (67-81°f)

6.5-8.0.

California Academy of Sciences.
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.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2009. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (10/2009).
Marceniuk, Alexandre P.; Menezes, Naércio A. (2007). "Systematics of the family Ariidae (Ostariophysi, Siluriformes), with a redefinition of the genera" Zootaxa 1416: 1–126.