Taxonomy & naming
Clarias lamottei was described by the French ichthyologists Jacques Daget and Bernard Planquette in 1967, in the Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (2nd series, vol. 39, pp. 278–281). The type locality is the Aoué Bla, a stream near the Lamto Ecology Station in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast); the holotype (MNHN-IC-1966-1104) and a paratype (MNHN-IC-1966-1105) are held at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. It belongs to the family Clariidae, the airbreathing or walking catfishes, and within the genus Clarias it was placed in the subgenus Dinotopteroides, a group distinguished by the presence of a small adipose fin.
Subsequent work by Teugels (2003) proposed that Clarias lamottei is not an independent evolutionary lineage but a probable natural hybrid between Clarias gariepinus, the widespread African sharptooth catfish, and Heterobranchus isopterus, a related airbreathing catfish. That origin, if correct, would explain the species' narrow known range and its scarcity in later surveys. The genus name Clarias derives from a Greek word for "lively" or "vigorous" — a fitting root for a fish that can survive out of water and wriggle overland between pools — and the epithet lamottei honours Maxime Lamotte, the French biologist who co-founded the Lamto research station where the type material was collected.
Morphology
As a member of the Dinotopteroides group within Clarias, C. lamottei carries the typical elongated, scaleless, catfish body of the genus: a broad, flattened head, a long-based dorsal fin running most of the length of the back, a rounded caudal fin, and four pairs of barbels around the mouth used to feel out food in murky or low-light water. The presence of a small adipose fin is the character that separates the Dinotopteroides group from other Clarias subgenera.
Exact size data for this species has not been confirmed in the sources available — data sparse. Given its probable hybrid origin between C. gariepinus (a genus giant that reaches well over a metre) and the smaller Heterobranchus isopterus, adult size likely falls somewhere in a large-catfish range, but a firm maximum length figure cannot be stated without fabricating one. What can be said with confidence, because it holds across the genus, is that Clarias species sold small as juveniles are size-trap fish: they keep growing, and an adult of this genus is not a home-aquarium prospect. Like all Clariidae it is scaleless, which makes it more sensitive than scaled fish to copper-based and some other medications, and it carries stiff, serrated pectoral spines that can lock erect and jab an unwary handler.
Habitat
Clarias lamottei is known from the Aoué Bla stream system near the Lamto Ecology Station in central Côte d'Ivoire, part of the Bandama River drainage in the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic of West Africa. Lamto itself sits in a transitional zone between forest and savanna, with warm, humid conditions typical of the region.
Specific water chemistry data (temperature range, pH) for this species was not found in the sources searched — data sparse. As an airbreathing clariid it is well adapted to oxygen-poor, seasonally shrinking pools and sluggish backwaters, using its accessory breathing organ to gulp air at the surface when dissolved oxygen runs low, and it can survive periods of drought or low water that would kill most fish.
Feeding
Detailed dietary data specific to Clarias lamottei was not found in the sources searched. Across the genus Clarias, however, these are opportunistic predators and scavengers that take fish, invertebrates, and virtually anything else they can overpower and swallow, foraging mostly after dark. Any tankmates would need to be too large for it to swallow, and in practice large Clarias are usually kept alone or with similarly oversized fish given the scale involved.
Mating
No spawning behaviour specific to Clarias lamottei has been documented in the sources searched — data sparse, and this is compounded by the species' likely hybrid origin, which would make wild reproduction between two different parent species rather than a straightforward conspecific pairing. Commercially farmed Clarias species are typically spawned via hormone induction (hypophysation) rather than natural pairing in captivity, and there is no indication in the available sources that C. lamottei is bred any other way.
Breeding
Large Clarias species are farmed at commercial scale across Africa and beyond using hormone-induced spawning, and there is no record of Clarias lamottei being bred in home aquaria. Given its adult size, its status as a probable natural hybrid, and the complete absence of hobbyist breeding reports in the sources searched, this is not a fish anyone should expect to spawn in a home tank — it belongs in the same category as the genus's other large, farm- or hormone-bred species.
In the aquarium
Clarias lamottei is not a suitable home-aquarium fish, and this profile exists mainly to document a scientifically interesting, poorly known West African catfish rather than to recommend keeping it. As with every Clarias, any specimen offered small in the trade will keep growing toward a size that only a pond or public-aquarium system can accommodate long-term; a small tank is not a permanent home.
If a specimen is ever encountered, the same handling cautions apply as for the rest of the genus: it is scaleless, so medicate conservatively, particularly with copper-based treatments; it carries locking, serrated pectoral spines that snag in nets and can jab the handler, so move it in a container rather than netting it; and as an obligate air-breather it needs regular access to the surface and will not thrive in a fully sealed or heavily agitated setup that denies it easy air access. Clarias as a genus includes notorious invasive species outside their native range, so under no circumstances should any specimen be released into open water.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List lists Clarias lamottei as Vulnerable. Its known range is narrow — centred on the Aoué Bla stream and surrounding Bandama drainage near Lamto in Côte d'Ivoire — which leaves it exposed to habitat pressures typical of West African forest-savanna streams: agricultural encroachment, water extraction, and siltation. Its probable status as a natural hybrid between Clarias gariepinus and Heterobranchus isopterus adds an extra layer of taxonomic uncertainty to any assessment of its population trend, since hybrid lineages can be harder to track consistently across surveys than a clearly distinct species.