Mandubé
Ageneiosus inermis
About
The mandube is a big night hunter of quiet water. It reaches 64.8 cm and just over 3 kg, and it prefers rivers where the flow eases off, in overgrown backwaters rather than the main push of the current. It hunts after dark, and its prey is mostly other fish, including armoured catfish, plus shellfish. It lives in warm water, around 22 to 24 C.
Also known as: manduba, haplochromis quads, catfish
- Length
- 64.8 cm
- Weight
- max 3.1 kg
- Temperature
- 22–24 °C
How to tell it apart
Most catfish of this size look alike from above, which is usually the only angle you get. So look at the head from the side. The eyes sit low on the sides, down at the same level as the mouth, not up on the crown as in most river catfish. Set that low, they let the fish watch the water above and below it at the same time.
Appearance
The body is long and completely bare, with no scales anywhere. The head is pointed and pressed flat along the top. The give-away is the first ray of the fin on the back: it is very long and carries sharp spines along its edge, sharp enough that netted fish are hard to get free by hand. In breeding males the feelers under the chin and that spine both change shape.
Did you know?
One of its close relatives turned out not to exist. The fish described as Ageneiosus marmoratus was a strongly marked young mandube, and the name has since been folded into this species.
Log it in Into the Blue
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