Talk:Basa (fish)

Catfish
If further research agrees, this may need to be re-catagorized out of Catfishes. According to the externally linked article, the fish looks, cooks, and tastes differently from any catfish. It does not have the typical wide flat mouth, nor does it have "whiskers". It's scientific classification does not identify it as a catfish.

--TecBrat 13:42, 30 January 2006 (UTC)


 * It's in the family Pangasiidae (unless where I found that was wrong), which is one of the Catfish families (see the article). It is different from the normal kind of "catfish" we find at the grocery store here, though.  Scott Ritchie 08:13, 31 January 2006 (UTC)


 * You are correct. This "basa fish" is a catfish species of the shark catfish family. No matter what people think, it is a catfish taxonomically speaking. --Melanochromis 23:09, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

More fradulent bias found in Wilipedia. The fact is that in side by side blind taste tests the Vietnamese Basa tastes almost identical and actually better than american channel catfish. Simple fact.

Quoted from http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-17/112344461913630.xml&storylist=louisiana "He said the free catfish attracted 102 people Saturday. On Sunday 200 people had taken the taste-test by 5 p.m. Of those, 49.5 percent chose the Vietnamese fish, 46 percent chose the U.S. catfish and 4 percent saw no difference.

Sample said 52 percent of the female liked the Vietnamese basa and 47 percent of the males preferred it."

So you can see this free Wikipedia Encyclopedia has been misused again and further effort needs to be taken here to prevent misguided political and racist bias from getting in here. Thank You! —Preceding unsigned comment added by MalMan (talk • contribs) 17:10, 8 November 2006
 * When bringing the term "racist" into this fishy debate, are we talking about "fish racism" here? Does one type of catfish have disdain for other types of catfish? Hoserjoe  08:06, 30 May 2007

This fish is also marketed under the names tra & swai (Pangasius Hypothalamous) The other "trade name" that has come to life recently is Ponga and that typically refers to (Pangasius Pangasius). The only "true" Basa fish is the species Pangasius Bocourti. The common consumer in the USA probably has never even heard of the terms Basa, swai, tra, or Ponga. This is largely due to the fact that distributors buy this product from other distributors and importers, then turn around and sell it to their end users (restaurants, markets) as Grouper or Catfish. It is definitely NOT Grouper! People (esp. in the southeast US) would be shocked as to how many fried grouper sandwiches they have consumed in the past year were actually one of these Pangasius species. Although it is taxomically a catfish, it is NOT the same species as domestic US Channel Catfish (Ictalurus Punctatus). They may be similar, but definitely not the same. The other issue that you run into is with foreign countries processing these "other" fish with certain chemicals, and antibiotics that are not allowed for use in the USA per the Food and Drug Administration. A recent example of this has occured in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. There have been Chinese Catfish imports that are being seized for containing flouroquinolones (antibiotics) and Crystal Violet (a coloring agent) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.203.86.226 (talk • contribs)

Per http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101020225-203513,00.html "...ichthyologists have found that U.S. catfish and Vietnamese basa are virtually indistinguishable genetically." Ewlyahoocom (talk) 04:33, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

For an article *about the fish*, this thing focuses way too much on politics. 24.29.9.211 (talk) 05:59, 8 January 2013 (UTC)ubiquitousnewt

Nonsense phrase?
I'm sure this means something, just not sure what: "Thesat the onset of the rainy season" What's a "Thesat"? Ward99 (talk) 02:21, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
 * So researched it - as the the section is talking about Spawning, and the ref says something about it - I have corrected. I think, improved the rest of the sentence...Ward99 (talk) 21:02, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

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"Cobbler"
In the UK, this fish is known as "Vietnamese river cobbler"... it would be nice if anyone who can explain "cobbler" in this context could do so in the article. — Hex    (❝  ?!  ❞)   22:01, 19 August 2009 (UTC)


 * River Cobbler redirects to this article, but Tesco in the UK are selling Pangasius hypophthalmus as River Cobbler, and as far as I know not P. bocourti. This article is especially confusing because it says "Other related shark catfish may occasionally be falsely labeled as basa fish, including Pangasius hypophthalmus (iridescent shark)..." But it's not labelled as basa! Maybe a separate article on River Cobbler is needed. Isidore (talk) 16:59, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Why isn't there a French article. The French word for Basa fish is panga. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nyanaliu (talk • contribs) 20:24, 18 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Aku 183.171.123.61 (talk) 13:25, 27 July 2023 (UTC)

Translation
Why isn't there a link to the French version of the article? In French basa is known as panga.Nyanaliu (talk) 21:14, 18 October 2011 (UTC)


 * The page Panga on the French Wikipedia is a disambiguation page about several different fish (and a village in Burkina Faso). The first link in the disambiguation page leads to an article about the genus Pangasius and not about this specific species, P. bocourti.  If you look at the French article about Pangasius, you will notice that P. bocourti is redlinked, which means there isn't an article about this specific species in the French Wikipedia.  However, if you look at the English Pangasius page, you will notice that there is a link for Français under the "Languages" bar.
 * Hope this helps! —Dajagr (talk) 21:24, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Kashrut of Basa
The original section in Wikipedia page stated: "The basa fish does have both fins and 'easily removable' scales, so the fish is kosher; however, catfish is not a kosher fish. Basa is more akin to the grouper family when dealing with issues of kashrut, but according to kashrut.com, basa is not kosher."

Firstly, if the scales are easily removable BUT they do not leave the skin of the fish intact, then the fish is not kosher. Secondly, the mere logic here is strange - if basa is a catfish, and catfish is not kosher, how can Basa be kosher?

In any event, here are a number of highly reputable links that explain why basa is not kosher: 1. Orthodox Union - "Ask OU Kosher: Nothing Fishy About OU Fish Standards" 2. Kashrut.com - "Consumers' FAQ's on Kosher Fish" 3. Chicago Rabbinical Council - "On Kosher Fish"

93.65.61.64 (talk) 00:21, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

U.S/ Canada
Shelves in Canada is full of this stuff now and its cheap/ cheaper. Its even cheaper than Canadian/ American pollock which used to be a cheaper fish.

I'm very afraid of fish from most Asian countries and have started checking website for information. First I had to learn what bassa was as I bought some extremely cheap. But the river where most of this fish is caught is extremely polluted and it is farmed fish ...like most fish these day. Most of these countries cannot be trusted, as they are so polluted, have very little regulations and they need the income...especially China.

Video about bassa farming and the river they farm it from. Sure it might be from from the fish war...but these Asian countries....i wouldn't trust. I actually stopped buying frozen fish that says china on it. I thought that fish from Vietnam would be cleaner ..but its worst.

http://vimeo.com/11817894 Starbwoy (talk) 20:17, 3 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your opinions! However, the talk page is intended for discussion on how to improve the article, not as a  general discussion forum for the topic.  If you have information from  reliable sources, feel free to add it to the main article.  &mdash;Dajagr (talk) 16:39, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

To add to article
To add to article: the etymology of the word "basa." 204.210.190.132 (talk) 05:47, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Subgenus
What is the specific subgenus for the Pangasius bocourti?

ICE77 (talk) 19:38, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

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UK naming
The article claims this fish is sold in the UK as 'River Cobbler'. While that may have been true when it was first introduced by British supermarkets in about 2008, it hasn't been marketed under that name for at least a decade. All shops now sell it as 'Basa' or 'Basa fillets'. This was a new species to British consumers, and initially the supermarkets simply had no idea what to call it. There is no tradition of eating freshwater catfish of any type in the UK. Ef80 (talk) 15:39, 3 November 2023 (UTC)