The family Ariidae includes the catfishes, marine and brackish water leather fishes. The family has a wide distribution in tropical and temperate waters, and its members occur near the coast, in estuaries and inland waters; few are strictly marine. The catfishes seek out river mouths and lagoons during the spawning period. They have a wide feeding spectrum, which may vary during their ontogenetic development, with the diet mostly constituted of detritus, decapods, fish, polychaetes and bivalves. The reproduction occurs normally, in the warmer months of the year or during the rainy period, when there is a major uptake from rivers. It is harvested for its meat, which is marketed both fresh and dried-salted.