The Tete sea catfish (''Ariopsis seemanni'') or Colombian shark catfish is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

sea catfish The Ariidae or ariid catfish are a family of catfish that mainly live in marine waters with many freshwater and brackish water species. They are found worldwide in tropical to warm temperate zones. The family includes about 143 species. Fossil ...

in the family

Ariidae The Ariidae or ariid catfish are a family (taxonomy), family of catfish that mainly live in Marine (ocean), marine waters with many freshwater and brackish water species. They are found worldwide in tropical to warm temperate zones. The family i ...

, native to

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

-draining

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s and

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

in Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

In the aquarium

Tete sea catfishes are occasionally available in the

pet A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive/ cute appearances, inte ...

trade under a variety of names, including Colombian (or Columbian) shark, silver tipped shark, white tip shark catfish, black fin shark, Christian catfish, Jordan's catfish, and West American cat shark. However, they are not appropriate for most aquarists because they must be acclimated from

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

to saltwater as they mature. It requires a very large tank due to its size and active swimming habits.Columbian Shark
''FishLore.com''. Retrieved on December 3, 2008.

References

Ariidae Euryhaline fish of Nicaragua Fish described in 1864 Taxa named by Albert Günther {{Ariidae-stub