PlanetCatfish.com

I have some idea but would like to hear from the experts

Thanks

Juan O.

It is possibly a C130, but could be a C. loxozonas variant, they aver extremely variable with some specimens showing the diagonal band and others without. I would like to ask if you just have the single fish or is it part of a group, if so is it possible to show a picture of the group.

Ian

Sadly i have only 2 out of an original group of 4. I'm keeping my eye out for some more, but cant find any locally on any of the LFS

I am by no means an expert but it looks uncannily like to me. Much more so than like or . If I am wrong I have also misidentified my own fish...
Frank

Firstly C. schwartzi according to the description should display a black dorsal spine as well as a small black shoulder blotch. There are a couple of pictures in the cat-elog under C. schwartzi that do not display the black in the dorsal, these could just be colour variations or possibly a new species. There are several other species, C. loxozonus and C. leucomelas are two species that show a tremendous amount of colour variation and with this in mind it is extremely difficult to determine an exact identification from one fish.

Ian

Thanks for clearing that up Ian. I have had a group of 6 (2 left) of what I thought were C. schwartzi that all had the white dorsal spine (exactly like the ones above). But, looking at the picture in the cat-elog of a large group shoaling in mid-water there seems to be a lot variation there, as far as i can make out. Does C. loxozonus not always have the distinctive black stripe running from the dorsal fin to the ventral lobe of the caudal?

Hi

I must admit that I have seen similar looking fish labelled for sale as C schwartzi in the UK and also saw them arrive mixed up with schwartzi in orders when I worked part time in the aquatic trade. I have also seen leucomelas, ornatus, ambiacus and melanistius mixed in as well. I remember one batch of 25 fish having 5 different species I could see.

Matt