Amur catfish
| Amur catfish | |
|---|---|
| An Amur catfish caught using a lure at Lake Biwa | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Siluriformes |
| Family: | Siluridae |
| Genus: | Silurus |
| Species: | S. asotus |
| Binomial name | |
| Silurus asotus | |
| Synonyms | |
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List
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Silurus asotus, commonly called the Amur catfish, Japanese common catfish, Far Eastern catfish, and Chinese catfish, is a carnivorous catfish species belonging to the Siluridae family. It lives in widespread distribution in freshwater habitats across East Asia and has a high aquaculture. As a freshwater species, it can be found only in the catchments of rivers, ponds, and lakes located in China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, the Russian Amur Basin and northern Vietnam.
S. asotus features are characteristic of a huge silurid catfish, featuring a white stomach and sporadic white spots on its sides. Fish have one pair of mandibular barbels and one pair of maxillary barbels, which are longer than the head, in both immature and adulthood. The young of this species have an additional pair of mandibular barbels. This species may reach a maximum length of 130 cm, although its typical length is between 30 and 60 cm, and its maximum weight is 30–40 kg.