Indian Rita

[Shovelnose]

Rita gogra

from Karnataka, India. What a beauty!!!! A friend was holding 2 specimens and this one killed the other. It was starved for a few days prior to travel and has taken to commercial pawn food immediately.

I unfortunately missed out keeping

Rita kuturnee

. Couldn't travel on time and the fish is pushing the proverbial daisies now.





Have a look at that spine!!!!

[sojapat]

That is a very nice fish! How does it behave with other none catfish?

[Shovelnose]

This is the first time I am keeping this species of Rita. It is alone at the moment and will be moved into a big tank in the next few months with some big cyprinid fish too hopefully. I have heard it can/will eat anything that is even slightly smaller, an affliction Rita rita also suffers from unfortunately . So I would think it is a fish for tanks with big fish like Barbodes,Labeo,Tor etc. This is also a very hardy species.

This doesn't seem to be a very active species at all. Very content to stay in its own 'lair'. Extremely powerful fish as my net found out recently. A plastic container is best suited to catch this fish.

[The.Dark.One]

I love the big eyes and the subtle colouration

[Shovelnose]

After a 1200 kilometre round trip to try and get some R.gogra and R.kuturnee, I would say I was fairly lucky. While I did get my hands on both species, the R.kuturnee didn't last long as they were handled a bit roughly by fishermen. Finally managed to bring back two juvenile R.gogra that have just been released into their tanks. I will try to take some pictures once they settle down a bit.


Meanwhile, the Rita kuturnee






Female specimens with eggs.




Male specimen.

Quite a shame I couldn't bring them back, they look rather lovely.

[minipol]

The female really does look big, nice fish too.
Hopefully the R. gogra do well in the tank.
A 1200 km fish trip? Wow, that surely beats my 600 km trip
It's a shame that the R. kuturnee didn't survive.

Are they hard to find and catch?

[Shovelnose]

Are they hard to find and catch?

They are easier to collect from fish markets as they are mostly caught from dams and their outlets. One has to inform the fishermen of their intent so they are kept alive. The only thing that cannot be avoided is the breaking of the pectoral and dorsal spines, all of them will be broken by the fishermen.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Intentional or unintentional? They are not broken on your fish above.

[Shovelnose]

The R.gogra will almost always end up with broken spines as the spines are quite strong and can make holes in nets or cause an injury. The R.kuturnee might be spared as they have smaller spines.

As luck would have it, one of the R.gogra jumped out (of an almost completely covered tank!!! )and dried up. I am now left with one (injured) specimen. Guess I have another 1200 kilometre trip lined up.

HH, I have a query regarding R.macracanthus. Considering its similarity to R.rita, do you suspect it could end up being a lot bigger than 11 inches???

[Silurus]

HH, I have a query regarding R.macracanthus. Considering its similarity to R.rita, do you suspect it could end up being a lot bigger than 11 inches???

I think R. macracanthus will probably reach around the same size as R. rita.

[Shovelnose]

Thanks HH. I will be in north west India for the next two years or so and will definitely try to collect this species.

[Silurus]

I'd be more interested in what else comes out of the Indus River drainage other than Rita. I found out not too long ago that the populations of Glyptothorax pectinopterus from the Ganges and the Indus river drainages represent different species. And this is right at the divide in Kashmir.

[Shovelnose]

Oh ok. There are a lot of hillstream habitats that are fairly closeby. I have a tentative trip schedule made up but I will take hints from you so they end up being as fruitful as I want it to be. I certainly hope there are are a lot of bagrids (a new species will be quite exciting).

Ps : It is quite depressing living close to a lot of my dream fish but living in conditions unable to support the same. Peak summer can hit 52 C where I live.

[drako57]

a 1200km trip for fish ?!?! :O How do you bring them back home to your aquarium ? :O I would love to go on such trips.. Used to fish from nearby rivers n streams when I was a kid. Lame fishes :/

[Shovelnose]

Fish like Rita gogra are best bought back in thick plastic jars.

Used to fish from nearby rivers n streams when I was a kid. Lame fishes :/

Your state/region has a lot of interesting fish actually. It all depends on where you go looking.

[drako57]

I used to mostly go to mula mutha river bed n nearby streams. And I always used to get the same type of fish. And sometimes in the nearby streams I used to get a long bodied fish and I used to be fascinated by them and stare at them all day.. I recently learned that they are some type of loaches Please tell me good areas if you know around Pune. And what gear do you use ? I mean if I want to catch bengal loaches how do I do it ?

[Shovelnose]

Indoreonectes evezardi and loaches from the Schistura denisonii complex should be fairly common there. In the interest of keeping this thread on the genus Rita, I suggest we carry on this discussion through PM if necessary.

[minipol]

As luck would have it, one of the R.gogra jumped out (of an almost completely covered tank!!! )and dried up. I am now left with one (injured) specimen. Guess I have another 1200 kilometre trip lined up.

Pfff what a shame
Isn't it possible to travel with the fisherman and a large bucket to put the fish in?

Ps : It is quite depressing living close to a lot of my dream fish but living in conditions unable to support the same. Peak summer can hit 52 C where I live.

52°C ?! Wow I would be wet from sweating. That's an insane temperature...

[Shovelnose]

Isn't it possible to travel with the fisherman and a large bucket to put the fish in?

This was my first trip to this region and hence, no fishermen contacts. Any future trips will be a lot easier. I wonder if anyone on the forum has kept R.kuturnee.

[minipol]

I hope that next time you're able to get them uninjured.
As for the R. kuternee, I wonder that too.
Is there a chance some were exported maybe as a side catch?

[Shovelnose]

Looking at the pictures in the species page, they were in the trade at some point of time.

[Shovelnose]

A few nonsense pictures of the R.gogra from the trip, the photo tank seems to be getting worse even in my absence. I will clean it up well in a few days for better pictures. In the meanwhile, the R.gogra has shown remarkable improvement as it had no fins when collected, only the dorsal and pectoral spines were visible. It has put on around 1.5-2 inches in this period as well.

[Shovelnose]

Took the Rita gogra specimen out for a few pics while doing a water change. The second specimen always squeaked when lifted out of water but this one never does, I wonder why.





No amount of precaution could keep those pectoral spines from giving a few bruises.





I love that typical 'lazy eye' look found in all Rita.

[Shovelnose]

Rita chrysea



Large eyes typical of this species.

[minipol]

You gotta love the eyes
Nice catfish

[Shovelnose]

A small update on my Rita gogra.










Not bad for a fish taken care of by non hobbyist parents.




This handsome fella tried to put his pectoral spine to good use.

[Tanganyikafreak]

Wow!
I'm in love with Rita now
What a beauties!
Especially the R. gorga

[minipol]

Very nice fish, they took good care of it

[Shovelnose]

A few terrible iPhone pictures. Not even close to full size, the largest I have encountered in the wild were around 12" TL.

[minipol]

Nice to see they are doing well. I don't think you see them often, at least I haven't seen any around these parts in Europe.