Schooling juvenile Striped Catfish (Plotosus lineatus)

The Striped Catfish is a small black or brown eel-tailed catfish with white stripes that usually fade as it matures. Dense schools containing masses of fish such as are seen in this video are typical of the brightly-striped juveniles. This is a marine species and can be found from coral reefs through to coastal estuaries. These fish were filmed in the uppermost tidal reaches of a creek in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in Sydney. At this location the water was a mix of fresh and saltwater, and this mi