Sea Barbel

About this species

Galeichthys feliceps, the white sea catfish, sea barbel, white baggar or white barbel, is a species of sea catfish found in coastal waters and estuaries over muddy bottoms at depths of from 1 – 120 metres where they gather in large shoals. They occur from Namibia to South Africa with questionable records of sightings from Madagascar and Mozambique in Africa and the United States of America and Mexico in North America. It is coloured brown, grey or greenish-brown on the upperparts and is paler below. While most grow to a length of 35 cm, some individuals attain a length of 55 cm with a record of a fish from South Africa weighing 3.8 kg.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Galeichthys feliceps”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 18 records
February: 13 records
March: 15 records
April: 98 records
May: 135 records
June: 98 records
July: 9 records
August: 5 records
September: 251 records
October: 45 records
November: 12 records
December: 8 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 34–69 m · Deepest record: 436 m

0–10 m: 3 records
10–20 m: 0 records
20–30 m: 2 records
30–40 m: 28 records
40–50 m: 49 records
50–60 m: 42 records
60–70 m: 33 records
70–80 m: 5 records
80–90 m: 4 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 2 records
110+ m: 5 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 15–27 °C

14–16 °C: 1 records
16–18 °C: 89 records
18–20 °C: 370 records
20–22 °C: 48 records
22–24 °C: 4 records
24–26 °C: 0 records
26–28 °C: 2 records

Photos

(c) Peter Southwood, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Peter Southwood · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Peter Southwood, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Brian du Preez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Peter Southwood, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Sea Barbel, White Sea Catfish

Other scientific names: Arius feliceps, Bagrus capensis, Bagrus feliceps, Galeichthys ocellatus, Pimelodus fossor, Pimelodus peronii, Tachysurus feliceps

Similar species

Giant Sea Catfish
Netuma thalassina
Black-spotted Seacatfish
Arius maculatus
Shovelnose sea catfish
Arius subrostratus
Sagor catfish
Hexanematichthys sagor
Aceroichthys dioctes
sand catfish
Arius arenarius

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
603 open-data records from 1840 to 2010.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.