Common names:
Werner's catfish
Lunyoro/Luruli/Lukenyi: Nsonzi General name for cat-fishes: Male

Taxonomic tree
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
Order: Siluriformes (Catfishes
Family: Clariidae (Airbreathing catfishes)
Genus: Clarias
Species: Clarias werneri (Boulenger, 1906)
Number of Occurrancies: 20

Etymology (based on Sharpf & Lazara, 2019) 

• Clarias: From Greek word chlaros (note that Scopoli’s spelling was Chlarias), meaning lively, referring to the extreme hardiness of clariids and/or their ability to live for a long time out of water (and, in some cases, actually move across land)


• werneri: in honor of Dr. F. Werner, probably Austrian herpetologist Franz Werner (1867-1939), who collected type 

Synonyms: click here to view synonyms on FishBase

Type locality: Lake Victoria (Buganga, Uganda). Lectotype at British Museum of Natural History (BMNH)

Distinguishing characters for the genus

• Flat and broad, usually bony, head (especially on sides behind the eyes); upper surface coarsely granulated in adults and smooth in young fishes (Clariallabes have soft sides of the head)


• Scaleless, elongate, body with small eyes and no adipose fin 


• Long dorsal fin, with no spine, extending from slightly behind the head to the caudal fin, from which it is narrowly separated


• Long anal fin, extending to, or almost to the caudal fin base than to the snout


• Air breathing organs derived from the 2nd and 4th epibranchials within the superbranchial chamber (Xenoclarias lack this organ)


• Dorsal and anal fin distinct from the caudal fin (Clariallabes have confluent dorsal, anal and caudal fins)

Distinguishing characters for the species

• Nasal barbels longer than the head, variable in length, reaching at least to a point mid-way between origin of dorsal fin and the supra-occipital process, but often extending to well beyond the first dorsal fin rays 


• Maxillary barbels longer than the head, reaching the first dorsal fin ray or somewhat beyond


• Pectoral fin spine serrated on both inner and outerside


• Head smooth above, its width contained 1.25-1.5 times in the head length


• Gill rakers long, slender and distantly set (10-12 gill rakers on the first gill arch)


• Distance between the tip of the supra-occipital process and the first dorsal ray contained 2.6-4 times in head length


• Color is variable; generally dark khaki, occasionally greyish-black; lighter below

Taxonomic remarks:

This species extremely resembles Clarias alluaudi. The two species seem to differ only on the length of Frontal fontanelle, which is short and squat (`sole-shaped') or intermediate between `sole-shaped' and `knife-shaped' in C. werneri and long and narrow (knife-shaped) in C. alluaudi

Distribution in Uganda: Lakes Victoria, Kyoga, Edward, Upper Victoria Nile. 

Occurence: Native

Habitat: Demersal, inhabiting vegetated areas (water-lily and papyrus swamps, and weed-beds) of rivers and lakes.  

Feeding: Omnivorous, but primarily insects (larval and adult aquatic Coleoptera, terrestrial insects, chironomid larvae and larvae of Povilla). Also feed on molluscs and plants

Biology: Nothing is known about breeding and other life history aspects of this species

Economic importance/End use: Unknown

IUCN conservation status: click here to view conservation status

Threats: Unknown; possibly habitat degredation, especially clearence of near-shore wetlands and papyrus where the species feeds and possibly breeds

Main references

• Greenwood PH. 1966. The fishes of Uganda. The Uganda Society, Kampala. 131 pages.


• Sharpf C, Lazara J.K. 2019. Fish Name Etymology Database v12. www.etyfish.org