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Stauffer, JR Jr & WF Loftus, 2010. Brood parasitism of a bagrid catfish (Bagrus meridionalis) by a clariid catfish (Bathyclarias nyasensis) in Lake Malaŵi, Africa. Copeia 2010: 71–74.

Abstract

Bagrus meridionalis (Bagridae; locally called Kampango) is a large substrate-spawning catfish endemic to Lake Malaŵi that exhibits bi-parental care and spawns primarily in the wet season from January to March. The female feeds her young trophic (unfertilized) eggs; the male orally collects offsite benthic organisms, which he brings back to feed the brood. While doing underwater videography in the lake, we observed evidence for brood parasitism of four Kampango nests by the most common clariid catfish in Lake Malaŵi, the endemic Bathyclarias nyasensis (locally called Bombe). Parasitized Kampango nests held Bombe young almost exclusively, and these were protected by Kampango adults until they exceeded 100 mm SL. We found that female and male Kampango fed the Bombe juveniles with trophic eggs and macroinvertebrates, respectively, as they do their own young. These observations represent a sophisticated example of cuckoo behavior in fishes.

hell, I want this!


looks like more catfish species can be called chuckoo cats and this particular case is catfish Vs catfish, not catfish Vs cichlid as is the case in Tanganyika......

can I get my hand on a pdf or so?
tnx!


amazing. looks like Bagrus meridionalis is widely used by a whole range of fish.
Pseudotropheus crabro also uses the large cat as a surrogate parent and many small cichlids hide in the swarm of young cats and steal the food meant for catfish fry.

sidguppy wrote:can I get my hand on a pdf or so?
tnx!

pm your email address if someone else has't already obliged...

sidguppy wrote:amazing. looks like Bagrus meridionalis is widely used by a whole range of fish.
Pseudotropheus crabro also uses the large cat as a surrogate parent and many small c*****ds hide in the swarm of young cats and steal the food meant for catfish fry.

The first amazing thing is that B. meridionalis shows parental care like this at all. I don't know much about Bagrus but I haven't heard of a parental care system like this in congeners.

As far as the cichlids, it is hypothesized that the relationship is actually beneficial for the catfish, perhaps by reducing the predation pressure on the catfishes' own young. As mentioned in this paper, these cichlids are found simultaneously with the B. meridionalis young, while the catfishes found in this study were almost always found exclusive of B. meridionalis young, which suggests a more parasitic (vs. mutualistic) relationship.

Actually the larger Bagrids are known for their parental care.

and many other African cats have elaborate breeding behaviour; these catfishes used to be grouped in Bagridae but now have their own family; the Claroteidae.

in the Claroteidae we have large pitspawners that like Bagrus feed their young with loads of gravel containing invertebrates: Auchenoglanis
biparental cavedwellers wich look after their young for weeks: Lophiobagrus, Anaspidoglanis

some Chrysichthys too are shown to have a pairbond and look after eggs and fry for quite some time

and even biparental mouthbreeders wich can swap their eggs and fry from female to male or even duo breeding them at will: Phyllonemus

several other genera in the Claroteids probably show breeding care as well

the Electric cats (another African family) are suspected to be mouthbrooders as well.

it's the parasitism that surprises me, not the breeding care; of all the catfishes it's likely the Africans and the Ariids who have the most developed care of all.

Hmmm, I did not know about the feeding of invertebrates to young in other catfishes, but none of the fish you listed feed their young with trophic eggs, which is a fascinating adaptation. The fact I find it fascinating probably wouldn't be changed whether or not it's widespread in Bagrus.

I think the trophic eggs are indeed unique and abviously a list of fish went for the oppertunity.

I know of other animals that do so, but no catfish.