Catfish, Marbled

The Marbled Catfish is a species of whiskered catfish from South America which has recently been introduced to the fishing lakes and ponds of Thailand.
In its native range the Marbled Catfish occurs in the Amazon, Essequibo, and Orinoco River basins in South America where it has reached over a meter in length with weights in the excess of 13 kg’s.
The Marbled Catfish is a stunning example of the pimelodidae family of catfish sporting long pairs of maxillary barbels which become shorter as the Marbled Catfish matures.These barbels display a rings of a black and white colouration and are used to seek out prey fish in the murky waters that they inhabit.
Young Marbled Catfish display a beautiful spotted colouration in early stages which gives way to a marbled effect as the fish increases in maturity.
This species of Catfish is also easily recognisable from its flared dorsal fin which quite often displays the same colouration as its body.
The nocturnal and predatory Marbled Catfish favours rocky substrates or log strewn bottoms over which it lays up during daylight hours before hunting and foraging during the night.
This species favours deep wells, riverbeds and land locked lakes where they feed voraciously on all manner of small fishes, insects and other aquatic creatures and plant matter.
Marbled Catfish have recently been imported to several of Thailand’s commercial fisheries such as Palm Tree Lagoon and IT Lake Monsters where they are thriving in the tropical waters of Thailand.
Fishing Thailand for Marbled Catfish is best approached with either float fished worms or alternatively groundbait packed feeders fished in the bottom layers.