Bunocephalus coracoideus confirmation

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

I got this fishes from Peru some years ago, and I want to be 100% sure this is Bunocephalus coracoideus. I am already 99% sure.

Bunocephalus coracoideus Female

Bunocephalus coracoideus Male

Bunocephalus coracoideus Pair

The reason I need the confirmation, it that they now produce eggs. I have in the past had some problem with fungus on the eggs, and missing the hole batch. Today I removed approximate 40 eggs, and will try again. The eggs are deposit in Java-moss, and the eggs attached themselves full of dirt, Not much I can do with that. The eggs are now innside the tank in a egg tumbler.

Bunocephalus coracoideus egg

Bunocephalus coracoideus egg

Wish me luck!!

E

[Martin S]

Hi Erlend
I'd say they look much more like

Xyliphius

- I am 99.9% sure that they are not

Bunocephalus coracoideus

. Whatever they are, great job with the breeding!
Martin

[bekateen]

I agree with Martin. Not coracoideus, and indeed, excellent job!

Cheers, Eric

[Silurus]

I 'm pretty sure those aren't

Xyliphius

. They look more like

Pseudobunocephalus amazonicus

to me.

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

Thanks for answering.

I have keept

Xyliphius

before, and I am pretty sure this isn't. Se picture for the Xyliphius melanopterus I kept.

I can agree in the Pseudobunocephalus amazonicus, but what is actually the difference in Pseudobunocephalus and Bunocephalus? I found this info in
Pseudobunocephalus, a new genus of banjo catfish with the description of a new species from the Orinoco River system of Colombia and Venezuela
(Siluriformes: Aspredinidae) John P. Friel. Neotropical Ichthyology, 6(3):293-300, 2008

"Pseudobunocephalus, a new genus of small banjo catfishes (< 80 mm SL), is distinguished from all other aspredinid genera by the following unique features: mandibular teeth restricted to a patch near symphysis of lower jaw; no contact between the metapterygoid and quadrate; autopalatine posteriorly forked with two separate cartilages; absence of the fourth pharyngo- branchial; absence of gill rakers on all branchial arches; and lack of bifid hemal spines on vertebrae that articulate with anal-fin pterygiophores."

According to the key in same paper, I can agree this is a Pseudobunocephalus amazonicus

But I am not sure, since I dont know the diffrens in Pseudobunocephalus and Bunocephalus?

E

[Silurus]

Unfortunately, all of the diagnostic features of Pseudobunocephalus cannot be readily seen in a live fish, so you won't be able to get a definite answer.

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

I spent the weekend at the cabin, an when I come back, the eggs had hatched. This is how they look like this morning.

Frank Schäfer at Aquarium Glaser writes this; The genus Pseudobunocephalus has been erected quite recently (2008). It is distinguished from the other banjo cat genera by externally invisible characters of the teeth and bone structures. As aquarists are more interested in fish than in technical definitions of genera it may be mentioned that nevertheless there are some external features that allow to distinguish Pseudobunocephalus from Bunocephalus, the most similar genus: in Pseudobunocephalus upper and lower jaw are about equally long; the lateral line is truncated at approximately the level of the dorsal fin origin; the uppermost and lowermost rays of the caudal fin are the shortest in that fin.

I am stil not sure if I should call them Bunocephalus coracoideus or Pseudobunocephalus amazonicus, but I guess I would newer know!

E

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

Around one week, and still going strong!

E

[bekateen]

Very nice!

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

4 weeks and still alive. Like the parents, I don't see them eat. I think they have to "swim" in food, and that makes the cleanliness a lot of work.

The parents have again lands eggs in the Java-moss. But I dont have the time to hatch them.

As you can see in the picture, they haven't evolved much, only grown bigger. I was thinking they would look more like their parents at 1 month.

1 month

E

[jac]

Great pictures and updates, congratulations!

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

On the 7 week now. Sadly I lost many of the fry, when the temperature dropped in the aquarium room, a novice mistake! But 4 fishes are stil going strong. I think they are surprisingly smale.

E

[Martin S]

Sorry to hear you lost some, but still a huge achievement, and to have the parents laying again shows they are very happy fish!

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

Okay. So the story has taken a very interesting twist.
Eggs have turned up in the tank from time to time, and often after water change, I normally see my banjos inside the java-moss after the water change and the day after many small eggs. But around Christmastime I sadly lost my adult banjos. I haven’t seen eggs after that. The first week of January I found some fry in the filter, and I thought this was the last one. But yesterday I found a lot of new fry in the filter again!! And when I so look at my fist fry, now 16 weeks old(this fish is always hiding), I understand that this in not fry from the banjo! This is from the second specie living in the tank – Spinipterus sp(1) Otorongo from Peru. So now I feel very happy, and also a little stupid!

I have to tell, that I have been thinking it could bed the Spinipterus, but all the evidence was pointing towards the banjos. And some friends of my will now maybe have some fun with me, since they already told me it had to be the Spinipterus, but I didn't want to listen to them.

Spinipterus sp. one of the adult in the group. Picture taken 4 years ago.

16 weeks old Spinipterus sp.

16 weeks old Spinipterus sp.

E

[bekateen]

Wow that's really cool! Congratulations again!

[Deb]

Great story, Erlend, and thank you for telling it in such an engaging way.

I've kept four species of banjo catfish, two Bunocephalus and two Pseudobunocephalus, and with each I've had to revise the ID's, even more than once - actually, with help from some of the folks replying on this thread!

I hope your surviving Spinipterus fry continue to do well.

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

Thanks!

Well, they are producing eggs quite often now. It seems difficult to get them to feed after hatching, but I hope to solve that problem. This is a photo of an egg some days ago, if you look closely you can actually see the embryo on the right hand side inside the egg. Fantastic??

[Deb]

Yes, fantastic!
It's been about two months. How are things going now?

[Jools]

Yes, we are interested!

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

Thanks for taking interest.

They are producing eggs quite often, I try to pick them up and hatch them when I find them. I also empty my filter some days after hatching, so I can pic out fry that have hatched from eggs I didn’t see.

The problem begins after hatching. I have tried different ways of keeping them, but without any grate success. I feed them newly hatched Artemia, and micro-worms. I believe that the problem is to get them to eat enough. Maybe I would have better luck if I quit my job and spent less time with my kids and family. But that would never happen.

Anyway, I have some new fry now, and I am not giving up.

E

[bekateen]

The problem begins after hatching. I have tried different ways of keeping them, but without any grate success. I feed them newly hatched Artemia, and micro-worms. I believe that the problem is to get them to eat enough.

Is it a matter of how many times a day you feed them? Or how much food you can provide fast enough?

I don't know how your banjos will compare to B. coracoideus, but I had very good success feeding the hatchlings on finely powdered blends of various dry foods - normal flakes, algae wafers, freeze-dried tubifex worms, shrimp pellets. I mixed them together in random amounts and used a mortar and pestle to grind them until they were so smooth they felt like silk between my fingers. Then I fed this to the fry 3x per day (morning, dinner, and bedtime).

Good luck,
Eric

[Martin S]

Is it a matter of how many times a day you feed them? Or how much food you can provide fast enough?

I don't know how your banjos will compare to B. coracoideus, but I had very good success feeding the hatchlings on finely powdered blends of various dry foods - normal flakes, algae wafers, freeze-dried tubifex worms, shrimp pellets. I mixed them together in random amounts and used a mortar and pestle to grind them until they were so smooth they felt like silk between my fingers. Then I fed this to the fry 3x per day (morning, dinner, and bedtime).

Eric
Did you note that the eggs are in fact Spinipterus, not Bunocephalus? Though that's not to say your feeding suggestion would not be of use.
Makes you wonder if they have any specific requirements as young that can't easily be replicated in the aquarium?
Great post
Thanks
Martin

[bekateen]

Hi Martin,

Thanks for pointing this out. Yes I did know that these weren't Bunocephalus, but I forgot they were Spinipterus (I was thinking they were Pseudobunocephalus). Little senility kicking in on my part, I suppose.

You are right that there may be some nutritional need we don't recognize yet. But until we come to that point, we might as well try everything that's worked before. In that context, I use the same diet of finely powdered dry foods on my baby oil cats and they seem to eat well. So perhaps it's worth a try.

Cheers, Eric

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

Thanks for answering.

I am thinking that its how many times a day I can manage to provide food, together with how often I can clean for them, that is the problem. I need to try to give them food more often, but I have the problem with not enough hours a day. Let se if I can sharpen up a little!

At least I still have 3 small ones left from last batch. And one that I now has kept for over 6 months. But that’s not god enough out of many 100 eggs.


E

[Erlend D Bertelsen]

2 weeks since last post. And the 3 fishes are still alive and kicking (swimming). I started feeding more often and cleaning as often as possible. It is much work but it is more funn to see them survive, than to die!!

E

[Deb]

Good! Feeding more often and keeping things cleaner is a good recipe, and probably one that would work with many other species. One question: does cleaning more often mean more water changes or more siphoning of debris? Which seems to be needed more, of the two?