[3] It was described by Achille Valenciennes in 1840, originally under the genus Bagrus.

[1] It occurs in estuaries and coastal marine waters in Brazil, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.

It reaches a maximum weight of 15 kg (33 lb).

It may be a host for the parasite Amapacanthus Amazonicus.

[4] The passany sea catfish is currently ranked as Data Deficient by the IUCN redlist, but notes that although the species is not of significant interest to fisheries, it possibly has a slow maturation rate due to its size, which may affect its potential for overexploitation.