UNSPSC 10101722: Live armored catfish or carachama

A tropical zone freshwater fish native to the Amazon river basin. Carachama means ribless; its scales are like armor. Scientific name is pseudorinelepis genibarbis. Family is loricariidae. Order is siluriformes.

UNSPSC 10101722 Live armored catfish or carachama is a Commodity code covering live aquatic species procurement by state and local governments. Recent solicitations reveal that state and local buyers are actually purchasing live fish — primarily mosquitofish and fingerling trout — for mosquito control programs, educational fishery management, and public recreation rather than armored catfish or carachama. Hillsborough County, Florida's Public Works Department solicited Gambusia holbrooki mosquitofish in three size grades (medium, large, and field run) for residential distribution and mosquito control via ITB 26-00227, with an estimated three-year contract value of $169,440.00 and a May 7, 2026 bid deadline. Montgomery County, Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources issued a sub-lease RFQ for a trout nursery operator to rear fingerling trout for fishing opportunity programs serving disadvantaged and disabled populations, with a June 4, 2026 response deadline. The issuing bodies soliciting under this code span county public-works departments, county parks and natural-resources agencies, and state fish commissions operating in collaboration with local jurisdictions.

Geographic activity centers on Florida and Pennsylvania based on recent postings, with Hillsborough County (Florida) and Montgomery County (Pennsylvania) as the standout recent buyers. Neither the source nor the recent solicitations document activity in other states. Fish must be delivered live in oxygenated, medicated water within specified timeframes; contractors face stringent insurance requirements including Commercial General Liability, Workers' Compensation, and E-Verify employment eligibility verification. The code shows minimal recent activity overall, and the solicitations posted under it diverge substantially from the code's nominal scope — live armored catfish do not appear in any of the recent state and local opportunities identified, suggesting the code may be misapplied in procurement systems or used as a catch-all for live-fish procurement regardless of species.