Pangasius Hypophthalmus - (Pangasianodon Hypophthalmus)

Pangasius Hypophthalmus (nowadays after a reclassification Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) is a freshwater fish of the Shark catfish family (Pangasiidae), which populates the river systems of the Mekong and Chao Phraya in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In Bangladesh, Singapore and the Philippines stocks were introduced as the consequence of commercial farming. There, Pangasius Hypophthalmus constitutes due to its greed and its competitive advantages over native fish some environmental problem.


The Hypophthalmus species has much of the characteristics of all shark catfish (Pangasiidae): it is scaleless and features an elongated body. An adult Pangasius will grow to a length of up to 150 centimeters, the maximum weight might reach 44 kilograms. The body is dark gray with a lighter belly and dark gray to black fins. Very old and large animals are uniformly gray, but the newly hatched are yellowish and almost translucent with pronounced whiskers, while older juveniles start to resemble the adult. The Hypophthalmus lives in groups. Its food ranges from algae, plants, zooplankton, molluscs, insects and organic waste to larger animals including fish, shellfish and fruit.

Traditionally, Pangasius Hypophthalmus has been fished in the wild, but it is increasingly also raised in farms all over Southeast Asia. The total production amounts to several hundred thousand tons per year. The majority is exported to Europe, where Pangasius is popular because of its delicate, mild-tasting meat and its low price.

Main producing countries of Pangasius are Vietnam and Thailand, to a lesser extent, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and India. For quite some years Pangasius has been farmed in the United States, too. But the main producers, such as Vietnam raised their production significantly. Vietnam raised the production of Pangasius and “Basa”, the trade label for the Pangasius Hypophthalmus and Pangasius bocourti from some 400,000 tons in 2005 to over one million tons in 2007, having a market value of more than 700 million U.S. dollars. Pangasius is farmed using primarily flooded rice fields. The fish are kept in special ponds or within cages natural flowing waters until the frozen filets are exported to the rest of the world. The main consumers are countries of the European Union (Read more on Pangasius farming).