Silurus aegypti is an omnivorous fish whose main food is animal feed. It is very greedy, eating both plant feed and animal feed, and its growth rate is faster than that of eating animal feed.
Egyptian bearded catfish mainly feed on small fish, shrimp, aquatic insects, water worms and benthos in natural waters. In artificial breeding, wild fish, silkworm chrysalis, fly maggots, clam meat, slaughterhouse leftovers, etc. Can also be fed with artificial compound feed, such as wheat bran, flour, bean cake and so on. Or the expanded granular feed made from these feeds has better effect.
Extended data:
Taxonomically, Silurus aegypti belongs to Silurus, Silurus. The body is cylindrical, the head is flat, the body is longer, the mouth is slightly lower, the tentacles are developed, and the eyes are smaller than those of the local catfish. There are many bone granules protruding from the head and back, which are arranged radially. The edge of the fin is reddish, with black spots and gray-white clouds on the side. The chest and abdomen are white and the mouth is wide.
The number of gill rakes is 52 ~ 90, dorsal fin 65 ~ 76, pectoral fin 8 ~ 9, gluteal fin 52 ~ 55, ventral fin 1 ~ 5 and spine 58 ~ 62. Body length is 7 ~ 8.8 times of body length, head length is 4.6 ~ 5.2 times, head length is 1. 1 ~ 1.5 times of body length, and kiss length is 2.8 ~ 3.2 times.
The sexual maturity age of Silurus meridionalis is about 10 month, and the breeding season is from April to June. Its spawning habit is like carp, but it is different from local catfish and toad catfish. Moreover, parent fish have the instinct to swallow fish eggs and larvae, so they can't hatch in the spawning pond.