Critically Endangered
Giant pangasius
Pangasius sanitwongsei
Giant pangasius is a ray-finned fish in the family Pangasiidae (order Siluriformes) — Pangasius sanitwongsei, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The species has a silver, curved underside and a dark brown back, possessing dusky melanophores that helps them camouflage. Its fins often contrast with its body, being dark grey to black.
Fully grown giant pangasius can reach 300 centimetres (9.8 ft) SL in length and weigh up to 300 kg (660 lb), though they are typically 2 meters.
Range and habitat
The species is native to the Mekong and Chao Phraya rivers that run through China, Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam, and the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Giant pangasius is tolerant of poor water quality, mainly in brackish waters, and prefers to live in the bottom of deep depressions in freshwater rivers. The giant pangasius, paroon shark, or Chao Phraya giant catfish is a large freshwater fish in the shark catfish family (Pangasiidae) of order Siluriformes, found in the Chao Phraya and Mekong basins in Indochina.
With this tactic, a whole ecosystem can be preserved.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Little is known of the reproduction of P. Sanitwongsei, but the time of spawning happens in the months of April and May. It is predicted that spawning happens in the rivers where they are found. They are not believed to be migrating from outside the river when getting ready to spawn.
The number of eggs per spawning session is around 600 (with a diameter of 2–2.5mm) and the brood shows low genetic variation.
In crisis
Its populations have declined drastically, mainly due to overfishing, and it is now considered Critically Endangered. The fish is being threatened by overharvesting, damming of rivers, and pollution. Their population continues to decline as there are not many legislations and enforcement toward this species.
A common threat to these large organisms is dams and segmentation of the Mekong River. A known breeding practice, to try and help the population, is being practiced by the Thai government.
Giant pangasius is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Giant pangasius, Wikidata item Q133444. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
