New artificial catfish species for consumption

[Marc van Arc]

The link below shows a new hybrid catfish which has been bred for consumptional purposes only. It's a crossbreed, but I get no reaction to my mail asking which two species were involved.
The name of this fish is Claresse, max size about 50 cms and it tastes well according to the article.
After the Wels and Clarias this is the third attempt to breed catfishes for human consumption in the Netherlands.

I see in any case some familiarity to an Ictalurid, probably crossed with a Clarias?? Too bad the picture only shows a partial view of the fish.

http://www.ed.nl/regio/helmondregio/409 ... -regio.ece

[Richard B]

Oooo - there's certainly an "ictalurid look".

Could this be the clariid x pangasiid that HH has mentioned previously???

[Marc van Arc]

Oooo - there's certainly an "ictalurid look".

Could this be the clariid x pangasiid that HH has mentioned previously???

Where did he do so? Have you got a link to that posting?

[Richard B]

I'll do a quick search later - it's been mentioned twice. Once in the thread where the pic of the paroon x RTC was first shown & previously somewhere else?

[Richard B]

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... &sk=t&sd=a

[Suckermouth]

The picture in the article is Ictalurus punctatus, used because it's public domain, not because it shows the hybrid in question.

http://images.fws.gov/default.cfm?fusea ... BFDB4FB878

[Silurus]

I suspect that you cannot find a picture of the fish in question because the company that created and markets the hybrids does not want you to.
I would also interpret the term “family” very loosely. I do not think that this literally means two catfish families, but may just refer to two different kinds of catfish (in which case it could well be an interspecific/intergeneric hybrid). If the fish is being cultured in Europe, this leads me to suspect an ictalurid hybrid of some kind.

[racoll]

The "Claresse" is a

Heterobranchus longifilis

x

Clarias gariepinus

hybrid.

[Marc van Arc]

The "Claresse" is a

Heterobranchus longifilis

x

Clarias gariepinus

hybrid.

Hi Rupert,
Where did you find that?

[Mike_Noren]

Giant clarias - that's just what all the tropical waters around the world needs.

I suppose it's too much to hope for that these hybrids are sterile?

[Marc van Arc]

Giant clarias - that's just what all the tropical waters around the world needs.
I suppose it's too much to hope for that these hybrids are sterile?

According to the article it is indeed too much to hope for. I'm afraid it's just a matter of time before these show up in our waters. Although far from tropical, they may survive during the summer and cause some damage to the endemic fauna. What's new.....

[sidguppy]

and I don't need to be a prophet to tell you it's just a matter of time; the surplus WILL turn up in the petfish trade, and loads of peeps will buy a bunch of tiny big eued baby cats and end up with entire fishtank populations eaten.

not to mention the poor critters being dumped in the LFS and on the auctions on the web and very likely dumped in local waters too.
just like Pangasius, just like Channel cats, big Pims, TSNxRedtails and so on and so on.

stuff like this makes me want to go all bioterroristberserk on some;
the sheer stupidity of man just because of mindless greed knows no boundaries nor any depth of depravement or lack of ethics.

[racoll]

Hi Rupert,
Where did you find that?

One arrived at the BMNH when I was studying there. Hopefully should be able to get some photos...

Here is some more info:

http://www.anovafood.com/uploads/docume ... h.0804.pdf

http://www.claresse.eu/en/about.htm

Claresse is a freshwater fish that originates from a natural crossing between two fish sorts from the European catfish family.

Hmmmm.

I'm shocked to see that a hybrid fish marketed under a fictional and composite generic name "Heteroclarias" is approved by the WWF.

If the fish stays in the human food chain and no further I don't see the problem, but we all know what happens....

[Mike_Noren]

"a natural crossing between two fish sorts from the European catfish family."
Hahahahahahaha!

It it a good question how, and above all howcome, WWF is "supporting" this. I think I will mail them and ask.

[Jools]

"a natural crossing between two fish sorts from the European catfish family."
Hahahahahahaha!

It it a good question how, and above all howcome, WWF is "supporting" this. I think I will mail them and ask.

I don't think they are, if you look into it, you find that the WWF are supporting a project in the Caribbean and thus their logo can get bandied around the place - I doubt they know about the risk of the hybrid going feral.

http://www.anovafood.com/page.asp?back= ... lStrBuyer=

[Mike_Noren]

You know, Anova doesn't strike me as a serious company.
Not only because they're pushing a man-made hybrid between a south-east asian and an african catfish as a "natural crossing between sorts of the european catfish family" and giving it a fake scientific name, but because of how they use the WWF logo.
And frankly that South East Asian project sounds pretty vacuous too.

[Mike_Noren]

Update: Tried contacting WWF intl., who knew nothing about this, and referred me to WWF Netherlands, who, in turn, do not list an email address and have a contact form which can not be used by people not living in Holland. So it ended there.
If any dutch people read this, feel free to have a go.

[Bas Pels]

The 'contact form' is only to join them

It looks like they don't want to receive e mails

[Silurus]

Heterobranchus X Clarias hybrids (they are actually two African species) have been around for quite a while, since 1985 in fact (there have been quite a number of papers written on aspects such as feed conversion in fisheries journals).

The two genera also apparently hybridize naturally without too much difficulty (the type series of Clarias lamottei was demonstrated to be a natural hybrid of C. gariepinus and H. isopterus).

Just wondering why it took so long to commercially market this hybrid.

[racoll]

Although not a very robust study, Mwita and Nkwengulila (2008; see here) showed that it is likely that

Clarias

is likely to be paraphyletic with regard to

Heterobranchus

.

This explains the ease in which they hybridise.

[sidguppy]

if that is the case then Heterobranchus should not be a valid genus and it should be Clarias longifilis instead.....

[racoll]

if that is the case then Heterobranchus should not be a valid genus and it should be Clarias longifilis instead

Only if the authors declared a nomenclatural act, which they didn't.

The data were too flimsy (not enough genes or taxon coverage) to support any reassignment of names. The work did develop a hypothesis though, and create an avenue for further research.

[racoll]

Here are some photos. Not great unfortunately, but you can get a picture of the creature.

I will ask for permission to use them in the cat-elog.

I will also ask about who made the identification of which two species were involved.

[racoll]

Okay, Jools, you can use the pics for the cat-elog. Email sent.

The ID was not from the company, but tentatively made by the curators after a bit of sleuthing, and interogating a fishmonger...

A certain ID is only possible I would imagine with DNA.

[bronzefry]

Yikes! This fish could be a cross of who knows what. Could it be more than 2 species involved in the mix?
Amanda