Amur catfish
Amazing fact
As an Amur catfish grows, some of the whiskers on its lower jaw disappear.
国立環境研究所 侵入生物DB
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
As an Amur catfish grows, some of the whiskers on its lower jaw disappear.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Amur catfish
- Scientific name
- Silurus asotus
- Japanese name
- ナマズ
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Order
- Siluriformes
- Family
- Siluridae
- Genus
- Silurus
A fish of lakes, marshes, and the middle to lower reaches of rivers in Japan, mainland China, the Korean Peninsula, and Taiwan.
Its head is flat and its lower jaw sticks out farther than the upper jaw. It has whiskers on both the upper and lower jaws.
It is active and feeds at night, snapping up small fish and frogs near the water surface from below.
How the Amur catfish lives
Around Lake Biwa, they gather in newly planted rice fields during the spawning season. The male wraps around the female’s belly like a ring as she lays eggs. The eggs develop after rolling onto mud or sticking to water plants.
国立環境研究所 侵入生物DBBasic data
- Size
- Total length: 60 cm
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)
- Diet
- Small fish, frogs and other animals
- Range
- Eastern mainland China, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan and Japan
Where the Amur catfish has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ナマズ
- 简体中文
- 鲶
- 繁體中文
- 鯰
- 한국어
- 메기
- Español
- Siluro del Amur
- Deutsch
- Amur-Wels
- Italiano
- Siluro dell'Amur
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Ikan lele jepang
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá nheo sông Amur
- Русский
- Амурский сом
- Türkçe
- Amur yayın balığı
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 国立環境研究所 侵入生物DB — ナマズChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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