In a recent paper, Ng Heok Hee and Maurice Kottelat erected the new bagrid genus Hyalobagrus (Hyalo= transparent). At least one member of this new genus has been known to aquarists for some time under the name Pelteobagrus ornatus. The fish, at various times, was placed in Pseudobagrus and Pelteobagrus. However, both of these genera consist of large species found only in East Asia. Scientists have agreed for some time that this dimunitive Southeast Asian catfish was improperly classified.
While erecting a new genus for the fish, the authors discovered two new species that belong to Hyalobagrus. Hyalobagrus is known only from the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, and Sumatra. The three members of the genus are:
Hyalobagrus flavus: This fish is known from the Batang Hari drainage in Sumatra and the Mentaya basin in southern Borneo. The type locality was a brown water lake with a pH of 5.3 in July 1997. The substrate was leaf litter and during the dry season,the lake was about one meter deep. Two species of the catfish genus Pseudeutropius were captured with H. flavus. According to local fishermen, H. flavus is found under thick mats of floating grass in the wet season.
Hyalobagrus leiacanthus: Known from the Kapaus and Barito basins in central Borneo, these fish were captured over a mud bottom along the steep shores of the main Kapaus River.
Hyalobagrus ornatus: This fish is known from the Muar drainage in southern Malay Peninsula.
Reference: H. H. Ng & Maurice Kottelat, 1998. Hyalobagrus, a new genus of miniature bagrid catfish from Southeast Asia (Teleostei: Siluriformes). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 9(4): 335-346.
