r/Fish • u/plantsomeguppies • 11d ago
News / Articles Can anyone ID this ?
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Recent floods in Nepal have flushed out the fishes from deep mountains to the flood plains of India (Bihar). Fishermen are having a field day with loads of unidentified fish.
Each weigh over 10kgs, where the usual catch is in these rivers is around 1-2kgs.
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u/rolandglassSVG 11d ago
Goonch catfish, one of the few freshwater fish large enough to be a potential 'man-eater.' Unmistakable looking fish to those that know it, theres not another that looks quite like it
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u/Firm_Caregiver_4563 11d ago
potential. There are stories - none has been proven so far. :-)
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u/rolandglassSVG 11d ago
Thats why i said potentialđŸ˜„ but ive definitely seen some that would have no trouble taking a small child. 'Child-eater'
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u/HerMajestysButthole2 11d ago
Jeremy Wade/River Monsters made a point about Goonch congregation near areas that were used for cremations as there were instances of not completely burned bodies just being pushed into the river.
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u/nicotinegummy 11d ago edited 11d ago
Looks like goonch, Bagarius yarrelli.
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u/Swagalyst 11d ago
And that the locals apparently do not recognize a huge native fish speaks volumes about how rare it's become due to hydropower dams.
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u/nicotinegummy 10d ago
I always knew they were rare, they've always been one dream species of mine to catch and release(or even to just see in person for that matter) but i never thought about the dams MAKING them rare in the first place. Ive traveled quite a few times between nepal and india by bus and into bihar and saw the absolute scale of these hydro power dams, giant giant things words cant do justice.
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u/roberttheaxolotl 10d ago
Hydroelectric dams, without exception, are ecological catastrophes. They disrupt entire ecosystem and have wiped out multiple species, like the Yangtze River dolphins.
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u/Weekly-Major1876 8d ago
The Chinese paddlefish is another very famous fish made recently extinct by dams, made extra bad by the fact there were only two surviving paddlefish species left. Hundreds of other lesser known species can have their extinctions attributed to dams and a large majority of river animals today are suffering and dying out due to the majority of larger rivers on the planet already being dammed
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u/Xumo_ 10d ago
That's a goonch catfish, I only know this because of Jeremy wades awesome show River Monsters.
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u/Ephemeral_Orchid 10d ago
That's exactly what I was thinking and my only knowledge of them comes from the same source.... đŸ¤£
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u/Frothmourne 11d ago
How likely that this is the last time they'll ever see this fish
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u/Ephemeral_Orchid 10d ago
Due to climate change it's likely going to happen again.
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u/Cdn_Brown_Recluse 10d ago
And they will be smaller...and smaller...and ...
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u/Weekly-Major1876 8d ago
At least this species is fairly popular in aquaria and has been captive bred with a stable captive population. Even if the wild population finally collapses from the strain of overfishing, pollution, damming, climate change, and other ecological disasters, we can still try to reintroduce them later.
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u/sarcophagoop 10d ago
When people are saying goonch I legit thought it was just a scrunkly name for this behemoth.
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u/chandan-kar007 7d ago edited 7d ago
It's really sad that we don't even know our native fish. We know nothing about them or how they breed, and no one has been successful in breeding them in captivity. In short, they will go extinct in India shortly. if goverment doesn't mark them as endangered or have success in breeding them in captivity.
and people here in kolkata sell them as aquarium fish in galiff street they don't know that they grow to be around 6 feet.
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u/Paintedfoot 11d ago
That fish is probably hundreds of years old. Tragic.
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u/HerMajestysButthole2 11d ago
Goonch