The kampango or kampoyo (''Bagrus meridionalis'') is a

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

species of large and predatory

bagrid catfish The Bagridae are a family of catfish that are native to Africa ('' Bagrus'') and Asia (all other genera) from Japan to Borneo. It includes about 245 species. These fish are commonly known as naked catfishes or bagrid catfishes. Many large bagrid ...

that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is ...

Lake Malombe Lake Malombe is a lake in southern part of Malawi. It is located on the Shire River, in the Southern Region around , about south of much larger Lake Malawi. It has an area of about . In recent years the number of fishermen on the lake has risen ...

and the upper

Shire River The Shire is the largest river in Malawi. It is the only outlet of Lake Malawi and flows into the Zambezi River in Mozambique. Its length is . The upper Shire River issues from Lake Malawi and runs approximately before it enters shallow Lake Malo ...

in Africa. It prefers areas near rocks in water shallower than , but it also occurs deeper (not beyond the

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

limit) and over a sandy or muddy bottom.

Appearance and behavior

The kampango is among the largest fish in the Lake Malawi basin, reaching up to about long, Konings, Ad (1990). ''Ad Konings' Book of Cichlids and all the other Fishes of Lake Malawi,'' p. 487. or possibly even . A common length is around and females are typically larger than males. Adults are overall blackish, while young are grey with dark spots. During the day kampangos hide in caves, but around dusk or dawn they hunt and eat their prey, primarily

cichlid Cichlids () are a large, diverse, and widespread family of percomorph fish in the family Cichlidae, order Cichliformes. At least 1,760 species have been scientifically described, making it one of the largest vertebrate families, with on ...

Breeding

The male digs a shallow nest in the sandy bottom, often near rocks, where the female lays several thousand eggs. After hatching, the young mostly eat trophic (unfertilized) egg that their mother lays, but they also take invertebrates that the father brings to them in his mouth.Stauffer, J.R., and Loftus, W.F. (2010). Brood Parasitism of a Bagrid Catfish (Bagrus meridionalis) by a Clariid Catfish (Bathyclarias nyasensis) in Lake Malaŵi, Africa. Copeia 2010(1): 71-75. The eggs and young are fiercely guarded by the parents. The young kampango only leave the protection of their parents when around long, but before that most have typically already been eaten by egg- and fry-stealing cichlids like '' Mylochromis melanonotus'' and '' Pseudotropheus crabro''. At other times ''Pseudotropheus crabro'' has a mutualistic relationship with the kampango, as it will clean it by feeding on

parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...

s and dead tissue.ScotCat
Bagrus meridionalis Günther, 1894.
Retrieved 2 January 2019. Another catfish, '' Bathyclarias nyasensis'', is a

brood parasite Brood may refer to: Nature * Brood, a collective term for offspring * Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents * Bee brood, the young of a beehive * Individual broods of North American periodical cicadas: ** Brood X, the largest ...

of the kampango. Kampango parents have been observed taking care of entire broods of ''B. nyasensis'' young as if they were their own. As these broods almost exclusively contain ''B. nyasensis'' young, it is suspected that they hatch earlier than the kampango's own eggs and eat them. In contrast to the nest predators and parasites, certain cichlids, especially ''

Copadichromis pleurostigmoides ''Copadichromis pleurostigmoides'' is a species of haplochromine cichlid which is endemic to Lake Malawi. It is found throughout the lake in Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country ...

'', '' Ctenopharynx pictus'' and '' Rhamphochromis'', will release their young near nesting kampango. The kampango and cichlid parents both protect the mixed group, resulting in a significantly higher survival rate of the kampango young.McKaye, K.R. (1985). Cichlid–catfish mutualistic defence of young in Lake Malawi, Africa. Oceologia 66: 358–363.

Relationship with humans

Kampango are highly prized as an eating fish, and are caught using nets and more commonly line caught, mainly in deep water around Cape Maclear, Salima, Mbenje Island, and

Nkhata Bay Nkhata Bay (or simply Nkhata) is the capital of the Nkhata Bay District in Malawi. It is on the shore of Lake Malawi (formerly Lake Nyasa), east of Mzuzu, and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The population of Nkhata Bay was 14,274 acc ...

. Fresh kampango are usually filleted and deep-fried,

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to coo ...

d, or cooked with tomato and onion as a traditional Malawian dish, served with

nsima Ugali, also known as posho, nsima, papa, pap, sadza, isitshwala, akume, amawe, ewokple, akple, and #Names, other names, is a type of maize, corn meal made from maize flour, maize or corn or ''mahindi'' flour in several African countries: Kenya, ...

. Traditionally regarded as one of the most widespread and common fish in its range, the kampango has declined drastically because of

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...

and is now considered

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

. From 2006 to 2016, its population declined by more than 90% based on the fall observed in catch rates in fisheries in southern Lake Malawi.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3757658 Bagridae Fish of Africa Fish described in 1894 Taxa named by Albert Günther