The name of the Mekong giant catfish, everyone must be familiar with, in recent years, frequent appearances on the Internet, such as (top ten giant freshwater fish), (top ten freshwater monsters), (top ten fierce freshwater fish), (top ten man-eating giant fish) and so on from the media list repeatedly appeared, famous. Just because it is large, stout, and does not look good, it has been misrepresented as a man-eating catfish, and the media has made a big fuss about it, such as (Thailand caught piranha catfish, weighing 300 kilograms), (Cambodia caught 300 kilograms of man-eating catfish), (Southeast Asian reservoir found man-eating catfish) and other messy online articles, that is, the kind of "opening three pictures, the content is all dependent on editing" articles, see netizens are tired.
In this regard, the Mekong giant catfish said: "It is really wronged! I don't even have teeth, but you always say I'm going to eat people!" ”
(Fish mang) word
Mekong giant catfish, literally translated from the English name Mekong giant catfish, Chinese scientific name giant toothless fish mang (a fish plus a man, this word input method can not be typed out), the Latin scientific name Pangasianodon gigas, belongs to the catfish order (catfish and catfish synonymous) - giant catfish (Pangasiidae) - toothless fish pangasianodon.
The Mekong catfish lives up to its name, with National Geographic releasing the news "Grizzly Catfish Caught in Thailand" in 2005, and on May 1, 2005, Mekong fishermen spent more than an hour catching a Mekong catfish, nearly 9 feet (2.7 m) long and weighing 646 pounds (293 kg). Their extreme size can reach 3 meters and 350 kilograms.
It is different from our common catfish, because the relationship is very far apart, the common earth catfish (Silurus asotus) and Silurus meridionalis (Silurus meridionalis) in China are catfish- catfish genus, with a large mouth, a flat tail and a long beard.
Catfish
The Megaclopeidae, where the Mekong Catfish is located, is much thicker than the Catfish family. The largest species of catfish is the European catfish (European six-whisker catfish), with a maximum catch record of 2.8 m and 144 kg. Compare the 2.7-meter, 293-kilogram Mekong catfish to show that catfish are too slim.
There are nearly 3,000 species of catfish, catfish, catfish, catfish, catfish, catfish, pond lice and other fish are all of this family, and the members of each family are different in form, but can be collectively referred to as catfish.
Many people also often confuse the Mekong catfish with several fish species that are more closely related to it.
For example, its only sibling, the low-eyed catfish, is known as Pangasianodon hypophthalmus, also known as Su's round-bellied fish, and its trade name is blue shark, but this fish is an endangered species in the wild.
▲ Filament catfish, Latin scientific name Pangasius sanitwongsei, is a pangasius genus , trade names such as Genghis Khan shark, dog catfish, etc., there are places to say that it can grow to 3 meters 300 kilograms, but the filament catfish The largest scientific body size is 1.4 meters 56 kilograms, not too big. The filament catfish is distributed in Yunnan, China, and is recorded in the Yunnan Fish List.
▲ Bo's giant catfish, scientific name Pangasius bocourti, is also a genus of fish, its nickname must be very familiar to everyone, that is, basa fish, is used to impersonate the dragon fish.
Fish can be eaten or kept as pets, and judging from the situation that people dislike basa fish, they are not very tasty and are more popular in the pet market.
On the question of whether the Mekong giant catfish eats or not, we can refer to the "Overview of the Breeding of The Extremely Endangered Species megalodon", which writes: In the juvenile stage of the giant toothless fish, a narrow tooth band can be observed on the extension of the bimaxilla, plough bone and plough bone of the giant toothless fish, and the tooth band gradually degenerates with the growth of the fish until it disappears. There are domestic literature records that the giant toothless fish has no teeth in the mouth, and it may be inferred that the giant toothless fish observed by the author of the literature at that time is an adult fish, and its teeth have completely degenerated and disappeared. At the fry stage, the fish is a predator, and as it ages, its feeding habits begin to change, and when the fish reaches 1 year of age, it becomes herbivorous, feeding on filamentous algae and epiphytes.
In addition, according to the "Study on the Feeding Habits of Giant Catfish in the Mekong River of the Mae Peum Reservoir in Thailand", the stomach contents of this fish were studied, indicating that they fed on zooplankton and phytoplankton.
The Mekong catfish has teeth when it was a child, is a carnivorous, and cannibalizes, but it is not harmful to people. After 1 year of age, it feeds on plankton, and when it reaches adulthood, its teeth are completely lost, which is the source of its scientific name giant toothless fish. In adulthood, the Mekong catfish can basically be regarded as plant-eating animals.
So this guy had a fierce personality when he was a child, but when he grew up, he became docile. Growing up, this guy couldn't eat people, and mistaking it for a man-eating catfish was indeed wronged. But around the Mekong River, there are indeed many rumors of swimmers being dragged into the water by large aquatic animals, and experts speculate that crocodiles are responsible.
More critically, the Mekong catfish is hard to see in the wild, and most of the pictures we see online are artificially raised in Thailand.
The Mekong catfish is endemic to the Mekong Basin and is found in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the middle and lower reaches of the Mekong River. Due to the rapid decline in numbers due to dams blocking migratory spawning, uncontrolled fishing and river pollution, it has been assessed as a critically endangered species by the IUCN, with an estimated current habitat area of 4150 square kilometers.
The mekong river is called the Lancang River in the section of the river in China, but it has not been found in the Lancang River. Whether it is the "Yunnan Fish Chronicle" of the last century, the "Yunnan Fish List" of this century, or the "Red List of Biological Species in Yunnan Province", there is no record of the giant toothless fish, and the fish of the Yunnan family of fish are filament fish, Jaba fish and short-bearded fish.
The countries currently protecting the Mekong catfish are Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Thailand is the main force, and in 1985 it began artificial breeding and stocking, and between 2000 and 2003, Thailand released about 10,000 farmed giant catfish into the Mekong River. However, because of the deterioration of the Environment of the Mekong River, it was later not put into the Mekong River, but into the reservoir. Fishing for Mekong catfish is also not allowed in Laos and Cambodia, but it is still difficult to curb poaching.
I am afraid that this toothless and mild giant fish can only continue its population in The reservoirs of Thailand.