Common names:
Victoria snake catfish
Local: Unavailable

Taxonomic tree
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
Order: Siluriformes (Catfishes)
Family: Clariidae (Airbreathing catfishes)
Genus: Clariallabes
Species: Clariallabes petricola (Greenwood, 1956)
Number of Occurrancies: 0

Etymology (based on Sharpf & Lazara, 2019) 

• Clariallabes: combination of Clarias and Gymnallabes, described as intermediate in form between these two genera


• petricola:  petra, meaning rock; –cola, living among, referring to presumed habitat consisting of large stones and coarse pebbles, and coarse shingles overlying sandy clay 

Synonyms: click here to view synonyms

Type locality: Nile River, about 1/2 miles below the Owen-falls dam, Jinja, Uganda. Holotype at British Museum of Natural History (BMNH)

Distinguishing characters for the genus: Superficially, Clariallabeslooks like Clarias. In Clariallabes, however:

• The bony sides of the skull are greatly reduced


• The dorsal, anal and caudal fins are confluent


• Adults are very small rarely exceeding 8 mm standard length. 

Distinguishing characters for the species (only 1 species occurs in Uganda)

• Soft lateral aspects of the head


• confluent dorsal, anal and caudal fins


• very small eyes


• color is dark brown, almost black, shading to light brown below

Distribution in Uganda: Lake Victoria and Victoria Nile, and possibly Kyoga. 

Occurence: Native

Habitat: Demersal; prefer rocky or stony substrates, where they hide among the rocks possibly inhabiting vegetated areas and swamps.  

Feeding: Mainly insectivorous, but can also feed on plants and zooplankton

Biology: The species hardly exceeds 8 cm SL; females are mature at 4 cm. 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 IUCN status

Threats: Unknown; possibly predation by piscivorous fishes in the lake (because of its small size)

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