Spiny Catfish

About

The Spiny Catfish (Clarotes laticeps), also called the Widehead Catfish, is a large, predatory species native to a broad sweep of African river systems, from the Nile and Chad basins across to the Niger, Senegal, Volta, and Benue drainages. It's a mid-to-bottom dweller by habit, generally solitary, and built for hunting rather than community living. The wide, flattened head that gives this fish its alternative name is one of its most recognizable physical traits, and the overall body plan is sturdy and functional rather than ornamental. Which partly explains why it rarely shows up in the trade. In the wild it feeds on crustaceans, insects, mollusks, and smaller fish, and it brings that same opportunistic predatory instinct into captivity. Tankmates need to be chosen very carefully, as this species can take surprisingly large prey, so anything sharing the water should be noticeably bigger than the catfish itself. Large cyprinids, arowana, and giant gouramis are among the options sometimes suggested for suitably spacious setups. Speaking of space, this is a fish that demands a very large aquarium. It regularly reaches two feet or more in length, and only truly dedicated keepers with the infrastructure to match should consider taking one on. No captive breeding records exist for the species.