My new cat from Papua New Guinea

[amiidae]

Cool looking cat.

[MatsP]

Very cool looking indeed. What species is it?

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Mats

[amiidae]

Neosilurus ater as I was told.

[Birger]

looks very photogenic...should make for some really great images of it.

Birger

[amiidae]

Thanks, Birger.

The fish is currently under quarantine. Will definitely take some new shots after I move it to the permanent tank.

[Jools]

Superb! Will look to see more pics - maybe a male in full garb - but it looks nothing like mine!

Jools

[amiidae]

abt 8 to 10 pcs came in with size ranges between 8 to 14in. few of them were dark grey/black and 5 to 6 were yellow/gold. They look almost like diff species when looking at the shape esp. the head/snout.

The 2 larger fish looks like male and female to me. One with long proportion of eel tail (dorsal to tip of the tail) and the other pretty much shorter in proportion. FYI, the one in the pix is the one with longer proportion of tail part.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Eye candy indeed

looks very photogenic...should make for some really great images of it.

Well, if you pay attention to Amiidae photos, of which there are plenty, he makes all fish look great. I have no idea how he/she does it but it is just superb, professional magazine quality photos. At least all pics that I've seen of his.

Amiidae, are you an LFS owner?

[amiidae]

Thanks, VJ.

I am just a regular fish hobbyist and I love catfishes and oddballs.

Aquatic photography is just one of my way to promote the species & the hobby.

[bigbird]

very nice indeed and great shot. thanks jk

[amiidae]

Thanks.

Anyway here is another cat fm the same shipment.

I was told that it should be Plotosus papuensis in view of the white lines running along the side.

[MatsP]

Ben, could you mail me the image of P. papuensis [It looks like a match with the photos of the preserved fish].

Wouldn't mind a couple of N. ater pictures if you are willing to share those too... ;)

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Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

I am just a regular fish hobbyist and I love catfishes and oddballs.

The reason for my asking is that you appear to have an unbelievably diverse and enormous fish collection, if all the fish in your photos are the ones you own. That's why I thought you might be an LFS owner.

If you are "just" a hobbyist, you are quite far from "regular" in my book. You are the cutting edge and state-of-the-art fish keeper Yes, I know, it is good to be of humble opinion of oneself...

Well, we share the same exact passion in terms of the objects of affection.

Please, never mind this diversion. Back to your thread...

[racoll]

They're both stunning.

Shame the P. papuensis gets so big. FishBase says: "May reach 100 cm TL according to local fishermen".

[andywoolloo]

wow, that's beautiful!!

[amiidae]

Thanks. Glad you guys like it too.

Ben, could you mail me the image of P. papuensis [It looks like a match with the photos of the preserved fish].

Wouldn't mind a couple of N. ater pictures if you are willing to share those too... ;)

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Mats

Let me try to get some better shots.

[amiidae]

My 3rd eel tail catfish. Not too sure what species.



btw, Mats, I had emailed all the images to Jools as I couldn't find your email fm my data.

[MatsP]

Ok, thanks. Probably just as well that Jools distributes them to someone else, as I'm trying to make "photo upload to breeding logs" work.

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Mats

[Silurus]

My 3rd eel tail catfish. Not too sure what species.

Also

Neosilurus ater

[amiidae]

Thanks for the ID, HH.

It is really interesting to see how different they can get in term of their head shape, snout & color.

Here is an image of a "typical" Neo ater that I used to have.

[The.Dark.One]

This is from the New Guinea shipment Pier Aquatics had in, along with Plotosus papuensis, Neosilurus brevidorsalis, N. equinus. Can't decide between N. ater or N. novaguineae. What do you guys think? The fish is about 20 inches.

[Jools]

Looks dissimilar to my N. ater. Aside from the fact my fish is black, it also has the much more of the back sprouting a fin.

Jools

[The.Dark.One]

Going on the drawings in Freshwater Fishes of New Guinea N. ater and N. novaguineae both have the second dorsal starting quite far back on the body (as does N. ater in Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Australia) In the books N ater also has the high dorsal and the ventral fins quite close to the long pecs, so it seems to match N. ater in the books, but not N. ater in other photographs, that's why I went for N. novaguineae, but the first dorsal and pecs and ventrals seem to match the N ater in the books, so I'm a but puzzled.

[snowball]

I don't think the first or third pics on the previous page are N. ater. The body is not tall enough nor is the snout as angular as in N. ater.

N. brevidorsalis is a more likely choice for the second but that is just a quick guess.

I have a couple of books on NG fish which list quite a few of the cats but they are in storage in the attic and it will take a few days to dig them out.

[snowball]

Photo 1 I am not sure what it is. The closest plotosidae in appearance is Tandanus bostoki. The colour is similar as is the mouth shape and the secondary dorsal appears to carry further along the body as in Tandanus. Based on this I don't think it is a Neosilurus species. However T. bostocki is recorded (afaik) only in the south west of West Austrlia. Perhaps it is also found in New Guinea, or perhaps this is a different species of Tandanus? Or it might be a different genus altogether. If would be great if you can find out what river it was collected from.

Photo 2 does look like P. papuensis.

Photo 3 I think is Neosilurus mollespiculum. The dorsal & pectoral ray counts appear to match up as does the colouration description. I am sure it is not N. ater as I have seen many of them and they all have a different head shape, although the eyes are similar. Again my references only show this is as Australian (North Qld) but it is from a regional focused book so you never know where else it may turn up.


The Dark One: Your cat looks more like Oloplotosus mariae, however that is only known from a single species collected in the upper Fly-Strickland. But you never know, you may be lucky! Let me know if you want the ray counts.

[Silurus]

The Dark One: Your cat looks more like Oloplotosus mariae, however that is only known from a single species collected in the upper Fly-Strickland. But you never know, you may be lucky! Let me know if you want the ray counts.

Wrong. Steve's fish looks nothing like

Oloplotosus mariae

.

[snowball]

My error then as I didn't check what was already in the catelog. I compared it against a photo of a dead fish that does resemble Steve's fish more closely than the catelog pics.

Do you think it is a Plotosus species or something else?

[Jools]

So, I think this:

and the pic of Steve's above as an attachment are the same thing. I think the initial consensus is

Neosilurus ater

with a lot of doubt.

Does the attached key help?



Jools

[The.Dark.One]

Not much as we can't count gill rakers from these photos but IMO the position of the second dorsal, the relative placement of the ventral fins and the golden colour lean towards N. ater. And I settled on N. ater for my pic too.

[Jools]

I think the golden colour should be discounted. There's a good chance many of these species do this.

However, could we not say, if the number of gill rakers is 20 then it is species A (due to character B) and if it's less than 13 then it is species C becuase of character(s) D.

I am interested in what you think B and D is.

Jools