PlanetCatfish.com

Hello guys, I have 2 catfish which I believed to be O.niger but having searched around I am unsure if at least one may be sifontesi. Is the only difference body colour? Thanks

Have you read this...

Occasionally amongst imports of Oxydoras niger there are some slightly different specimens which tend to have black coloured fins and a grey coloured body. These so-called contaminants are Oxydoras sifontesi.

Hi, yes I read that but was wondering if there was any other difference as I find that mine change the body colour according to mood and light levels. Thanks

We do have some photos in .

I'm unsure as to what the morphological differences would be (aside from the colour differences).

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Mats

this might need a slight push from "Other Catfishes" to "South American Catfishes (everything else)"
;)

sidguppy wrote:this might need a slight push from "Other Catfishes" to "South American Catfishes (everything else)"
;)

Done.

Jools

Thanks guys, the middle pic of sifontesi looks just like one of mine but the other 2 are different. I guess I'll have have to wait and see how big they get!

MatsP wrote:I'm unsure as to what the morphological differences would be (aside from the colour differences).

anyone?

I have noticed on my niger catfish that some of the cats have a larger scutes and fewer of them. These are the 2 of my group that are usually greyer in colour. I'm not sure if this would just be individual variation between individuals though.

judging by the picture in the Catelog; sifontesi has smaller scutes in a larger number than niger.

but it's not easy to see

maybe in the species description there are scute numbers available?

I also suspect (not sure!) that there are likely a few sifontesi pictures still left on the page of oxydoras niger.

it'll be a meticulous job to find out which is which
;)

Yes, I have noticed that on some of the pics the scutes look very big and sharp but appear in smaller numbers whilst on others (including mine) the scutes are much smaller but more numerous....