Taxonomy & naming
Clarias buthupogon was described by the French naturalist Henri Émile Sauvage in 1879. It belongs to the family Clariidae, the airbreathing or walking catfishes, and to the genus Clarias, a large Old World genus of more than 60 species found across Africa and Asia. The Catalog of Fishes treats Clarias buthupogon as the currently valid name, and it has always been placed in Clarias rather than in any of the older, now-obsolete catfish genera.
The genus name Clarias derives from the Greek chlaros, meaning "lively" or "vigorous," a nod to how long these fish stay active out of water thanks to their accessory air-breathing organ. The species has been the subject of at least one dedicated field study — a diet survey conducted in the Yoko Reserve rivers of Tshopo Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo — confirming its presence and natural feeding ecology in that part of the Congo basin.
Morphology
Like other Clarias, C. buthupogon has the unmistakable walking-catfish body plan: an elongated, cylindrical, scaleless body, a flattened bony head, a long-based dorsal fin running most of the length of the back, and a similarly long anal fin, giving the fish an eel-like silhouette. Four pairs of barbels around the mouth help it feel out food on dark riverbeds at night.
Maximum recorded size is 13.5 in total length, a size class typical for medium-sized Clarias and one that puts this fish well beyond "small catfish" territory. The skin is naked and scaleless, which makes the species — like loaches, puffers and true eels — notably more sensitive to copper and many other medications than scaled fish. The pectoral and dorsal fins carry stiff, sharp spines that can lock erect; these are used both for defence and to help the fish brace itself while walking overland, and they will readily snag a soft aquarium net.
Habitat
Clarias buthupogon is native to Africa, recorded from coastal rivers of Benin and Nigeria and from the Cross, Sanaga, Wouri and Ogooué rivers of Cameroon and Gabon, as well as across the Congo River basin, including tributaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Tshopo Province. It is a freshwater, demersal (bottom-dwelling) species found in rivers and their associated backwaters and floodplain pools.
According to FishBase, wild water conditions run pH 6.0–7.5 and temperature 72–82 °F, with moderate hardness of roughly 15–25 dH — mildly soft to moderately hard, near-neutral tropical river water rather than either soft blackwater or hard alkaline conditions. Like other clariids it can tolerate low-oxygen, seasonally shrinking pools because its labyrinth organ lets it breathe atmospheric air directly.
Feeding
A field study of C. buthupogon in two rivers of the Yoko Reserve (DRC) documented its natural diet directly: aquatic insects, crustaceans, oligochaete worms, molluscs and some plant debris, characterising it as an insectivorous-omnivorous forager rather than a strict piscivore. It hunts mostly by scent and touch along the barbels, working the bottom after dark.
In the aquarium a fish of this description takes a broad range of meaty and prepared foods readily — sinking pellets, chopped prawn or fish, bloodworm, and other frozen foods — and is not a fussy feeder. Because it is a nocturnal forager, feeding after lights-out suits its natural rhythm best, and as with any Clarias, tankmates should be sized so they cannot be swallowed.
Mating
Detailed accounts of courtship and spawning behaviour for Clarias buthupogon specifically are not documented in the available literature. Across the genus Clarias, though, the large species typical of this size class are propagated almost exclusively at commercial fish-farming scale using hormone-induced spawning (commonly with pituitary extract or synthetic hormone injections) rather than through natural pairing in captivity — there is no meaningful record of home-aquarium courtship or pairing behaviour for a Clarias of this size.
Breeding
As with the large commercially important Clarias species generally, Clarias buthupogon is not bred in home aquaria. Where Clarias species are propagated at all, it is on fish farms using hormone-induced spawning to trigger egg release, followed by artificial fertilisation and pond or tank rearing of fry at commercial scale — a process aimed at food-fish production, not at the aquarium trade. The species' large adult size (13.5 in TL) and its demand for space make natural pair spawning in a home tank impractical even where the fish is available. Hobbyists should not expect to breed this species, and any specimens seen in the trade are essentially never captive-bred for aquarium purposes.
In the aquarium
Clarias buthupogon is a large catfish — 13.5 in total length at maturity — and this is the single most important fact for anyone considering it: it will outgrow the vast majority of home aquariums and is not a fish for a standard community tank. Anyone keeping it needs a very large, heavily filtered tank (several hundred litres at minimum) with a tight-fitting, weighted lid, since Clarias are strong, capable air-breathers that can and will climb or force their way out of an uncovered tank, especially at night.
Because the skin is scaleless, dose copper-based and other medications conservatively, as for loaches or puffers. The pectoral and dorsal spines lock rigid and can jab the keeper or snag in a net, so this fish is best moved in a submerged container rather than netted. It is a nocturnal, opportunistic feeder that will eat any tankmate small enough to swallow, so companions must be robust, similarly large-bodied species. As an accessory air-breather it needs regular access to the surface and tolerates crowded or lower-oxygen conditions better than most fish, but this same hardiness is why escaped or released Clarias have become a serious invasive problem in parts of the world — never release this or any Clarias into local waterways.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List assesses Clarias buthupogon as Least Concern. It occupies a broad range across West African coastal rivers and much of the Congo basin, and there is no indication of significant population decline across that range.
As with many widespread African river catfishes, localized pressures — deforestation-driven sedimentation, water pollution and unregulated fishing — can affect specific river systems even where the species as a whole remains secure. The Congo basin populations documented in Tshopo Province studies represent an ongoing baseline for monitoring the species' status in a region facing increasing human pressure on freshwater habitats.