PlanetCatfish.com

I often visit here as guest, to search for information.
And i think the time is ripe to register....
My name is Mark Douwes from Holland, I keep catfishes next to my parachromis ik several tanks.

I just bought a new catfish, and I can't figure out what I bought.....
Ít's been sold to me as an Megalancistrus Sp. Black, but I cant find anything about this beautifull creature
Of course i want to know what the make is, but what's important to me is it's water conditions and what it eats....

He is living in a large tank now with folowing water conditions
temp. 25.5 C
pH 7,1
dH 14
300 Microsiemens

hopefully you can help me improve the living conditions of my new cat.

thnks Mark

I've moved your topic to the "ID" forum, as it is definitely not a "SA Catfish(Everything else)" question - technically it could go in the Loricariidae section, but ID questions don't really belong there.

I'm afraid you'll have to supply a better picture - particularly interesting is the mouth, as the shape of the mouth and the teeth are important keys to the genera of the fish. A good side-on view would also help.

The genera shouldn't be too hard to identify, as it's got the "ancistrus" type hooked evertible odontodes, so if you catch it and see if it sticks out hooked spikes by the gill-cover, that would be a key.

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Mats

Thanks for moving......I am new here...

Here some extra pictures...

...

A mouth-shot like this:
is what I'm looking for.

--
Mats

I understand, but he moves 's only when its dark, so to speak....
These were lucky shots.....
And to catch him is almost impossible, because I have to empty my tank to do so.....

Could be this one or a another in the same genus.

Janne

For sure it is one of its brothers or sisters.
I had the idea that it was an Pogonopoma parahybae, but I am far from sure.....

Do you have any information where it comes from...a river maybe?

Janne

I am blank.....no extra information, it's about 30 -35 cm in length....

Definitely one of the Rhinelepini.

I'll have to do a bit more research and get back to you....

I know it's not according to the opinions above (which I value highly), but how about ?

I also thought it was a pogonopoma.

I made some detailed pictures...of the mouth and dorsal fins....

How many branched dorsal fin rays is that? It looks like 8 to me. If I'm reading this right, according to the diagnosis in a 2002 paper describing P. obscurum, P. obscurum has 8-11, while the rest of the Rhinelepis group have 7 branched dorsal fin rays.

Pictures of the gills in relationship to the mouth perhaps would be nice to compare gill slit size; Rhinelepis species have large gill slits, and the distance between the gill slits is less than the width of the lips in these species. By contrast, the rest of the Rhinelepines, it appears, have small gill slits, and the distance between the gill slits would be greater than the width of the lips.

It seems to be an Pogonopoma obscurum than.....
Anybody got some info.....i can't find anything about this fish......
waterconditions, food, behavior, age, spawning, etc

Bad picture, but you can see the relation between gill slits and mouth.....
the distance is indeed smaller than the mouth.....

Scratch what I said before, the gill opening thing is used to distinguish Rhinelepis from Pseudorinelepis; no mention is made of the gill slits being used to distinguish the genus Pogonopoma, though P. wertheimeri does have smaller gill slits, but it's not your fish for different reasons as well. I'm now going to give some info from the key to Rhinelepini given in the 2002 paper. P. obscurum has more dorsal fin branched rays (8-11), and thus is easily distinguished from the rest of the tribe. If the fish has seven rays, then you can look at the presence or absence of an adipose fin. P. wertheimeri has an adipose fin (and is thus not your fish), while everything else lacks the adipose fin (P. obscurum also lacks an adipose fin). If the fish lacks an adipose fin, the next step is to look at the abdomen. In all Pogonopoma species the abdomen is naked or only slightly plated; in Rhinelepis and Pseudorinelepis the belly is fully plated. From here, the gill slits are used to differentiate Rhinelepis from Pseudorinelepis.

Let me cite the paper so as to not be blamed for plagiarism...

Quevedo, Rodrigo; Reis, Roberto E. (2002). "Pogonopoma obscurum: A New Species of Loricariid Catfish (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from Southern Brazil, with Comments on the Genus Pogonopoma" (PDF). Copeia (2): 402–410.

If your fish indeed has 8 dorsal fin rays, it is probably P. obscurum. That said, the dorsal fin picture is not 100% clear to me, so your fish might have 7 dorsal fin rays. As I look back and forth between pics of your fish, Pogonopoma, and Rhinelepis, your fish looks more and more like a Rhinelepis species than a Pogonopoma, but I can't be sure. I also don't have access to a key to help diagnose the species or pics of all three species so I wouldn't even know how to identify which Rhinelepis species it is.

I can tell you that you won't find much information on P. obscurum; P. obscurum is not a commonly available species on top of the fact that it is relatively new to science, only being described in 2002.

I know that the picture of the dorsal fins is not the best.....
But I am 100% sure it has 8 dorsal finrays.....
Concluding at the info you give me, it must be an Pogonopoma obscurum? am i right.....

MADRacing wrote:But I am 100% sure it has 8 dorsal finrays.....

I count 9 rays (7 & 8 are based pretty close to eachother and number 9 is a very small one at the end of the dorsal).
At least, that's how I see it.

Remember, in counting dorsal fin rays, do not count the dorsal fin spine. But according to the paper, if it's got 8 dorsal fin rays then it's P. obscurum.

Suckermouth wrote:Remember, in counting dorsal fin rays, do not count the dorsal fin spine. But according to the paper, if it's got 8 dorsal fin rays then it's P. obscurum.

Ah, well in that case we're back to 8....

I think Jools would appreciate a few photos of this fish, as there is only one in the Cat-eLog of P. obscurum. Particularly the mouth shots and the fin shots are useful for ID purposes, and a few overall fish shots would be good (under water ones are generally better in this case - out of water is fine for "ID details" ones, so the ones you've got would be fine).

Send to Webmaster@planetcatfish.com. Include the name of the fish and your name for copyright/credit assignation (and your username here so that you get the "credits" next to your name in the right-hand side of the posts).

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Mats

No problem....I'll will send a view extra pictures....with it's lenght and weight....