Taxonomy & naming
Francis Hamilton described the species in 1822, and the parentheses around the authority show that the original genus has since changed. The Catalog of Fishes lists Rita rita as valid, and the species is placed in the family Ritidae, separate from the Bagridae in which older books list it. The genus name and species epithet are the same word, a tautonym.
Morphology
FishBase gives a maximum length of 59 in TL. It is a heavy-bodied catfish with a broad head, four pairs of barbels and strong pectoral and dorsal spines.
Habitat
FishBase lists it from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar, in freshwater and brackish water. It is a bottom-living fish of rivers and estuaries that prefers the backwaters of quiet eddies, and FishBase describes it as potamodromous, migrating within rivers. The recorded range is 64–79 °F, pH 6.5 to 8.0 and hardness up to 30 dH.
Feeding
FishBase records insects, molluscs, shrimps and fishes as food. A fish this size needs meaty foods in captivity.
Mating
Courtship is not recorded for this species.
Breeding
FishBase has no spawning entry for the species, and no account of its spawning is recorded here.
In the aquarium
Rita rita outgrows all but public aquariums and large ponds. Juveniles appear for sale, but a fish that can reach 5 ft needs a very large tank and will swallow tankmates. FishBase rates it as a very good food fish, and it is farmed and netted in its home range.
Conservation
IUCN lists the species as Least Concern, assessed in 2010. It is widely fished in the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus systems, and dams and pollution affect river populations.