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A new 2-volume work entitled "Catfishes" (what else?) edited by Gloria Arratia, B. G. Kapoor, Michel Chardon and Rui Diogo is due to be oublished in May 2003. This is a scientific work that summarizes what we know of catfish systematics and biology, and it costs a whopping US$142 (£100). Luckily, I'll be getting my copy for free.
Anyways, if you are interested in more information/ordering the book, email me for an order form.

Heok Hee

Can we clone you Heok Hee so that you can get a second copy free (and then give it to me)?

Even if not, I'm interested.

Why bother with the expense of an HH clone, he gets through twice as much work as the rest of us as it stands!



Jools

Rusty's remarks in the Tank Talk Forum just prompted me to agree that cloning me would be good. My wife will no longer complain that catfishes take precedence over her and I can spend all my time on catfishes. Definitely a win-win situation.

Heok Hee

LOL that was funny!! Sounds exactly like my wife...... sigh.....


SH

You'd just end up with twice as many tanks, not more time for the wife

I always get such a charge out of hearing the husbands complain about their wives lack of interest and jealousy about the time spent "playing with the fishes". I've had exactly the opposite experience

Barbie

Actually, maybe not more tanks (my wife absolutely refuses to let me have anything larger than a 10-gallon in our house, so I have to festoon my office with tanks and fishes).
What is likely to happen is that one of me will want to spend all the time on catfish research and the other will spend all the time on maintaining fishes.
Then, we'll need another one of me...

Heok Hee

Maybe we should set up a new forum where the spouses of catfish aficionados can get together and gripe about their partners?!

As for cloning one's self, asexual reproduction is not the only option, you know!

Dinyar,

First we would have to convince them to visit the forum (and I think we would agree that would be very difficult to say the least).

Heok Hee

Dinyar wrote:Maybe we should set up a new forum where the spouses of catfish aficionados can get together and gripe about their partners?!

We could call it "the catfish wives club". Actually Clare (despite being a very supportive contributor to the site) refers to herself as a catfish widow!

To keep it level mind you it shouldn't really use the words wives or widow.

Jools

Silurus wrote:A new 2-volume work entitled "Catfishes" (what else?) edited by Gloria Arratia, B. G. Kapoor, Michel Chardon and Rui Diogo is due to be oublished in May 2003. This is a scientific work that summarizes what we know of catfish systematics and biology, and it costs a whopping US$142 (£100). Luckily, I'll be getting my copy for free.
Anyways, if you are interested in more information/ordering the book, email me for an order form.

Heok Hee

Seems like an interesting book. Hope there's lots of pictures to help novice like us to identify what we see.

Cheers,

The book has lots of text, but not many pictures. It's not meant to be an identification guide. More of a scientific work.

As Achim said, there's demand for Loris and Corys because they are imported and they are imported because there's demand for them. Loris and Corys rather remind me of goldfish, but hey, goldfish are imported and sell well too.

It's very hard to break this vicious circle. One of the only ways is by education, making better info available to the discerning hobbyist. We need to do that in our own small way in this forum (see my post on Chiloglanis in the African catfish forum). And if someone who really know his subject like Heok Hee could write a book on a subject like Asian catfish, it would unquestionably be a great service to the hobby.

Dinyar

I have just been informed that the book will be available from 20 July. The publishers sure dragged their feet on this one. The wait is killing me.

Maybe the publisher has a wife too...

Still no sign of the book, but I have been given 5 pdf reprints from the book:

DIOGO, R. (2003). Higher-level phylogeny of Siluriformes: an overview. In: Arratia, G., B.G. Kapoor, M. Chardon & R. Diogo (eds.), Catfishes, Science Publishers (Enfield, USA): 353-384.

DIOGO, R. (2003). Anatomy, phylogeny and taxonomy of Amphiliidae. In: Arratia, G., B.G. Kapoor, M. Chardon & R. Diogo (eds.), Catfishes, Science Publishers (Enfield, USA): 401-438.

DIOGO, R. & M. CHARDON (2003). Homologies and evolutionary transformation of the skeletal elements of catfish (Teleostei: Siluriformes) suspensorium: a morphofunctional hypothesis. Val, A.L & B.G. Kapoor (eds.), Fish Adaptations, Science Publishers (Enfield, USA): 275-284.

DIOGO, R & P. VANDEWALLE (2003). Review of superficial cranial musculature of catfishes, with comments on plesiomorphic states. In: Arratia, G., B.G. Kapoor, M. Chardon & R. Diogo (eds.), Catfishes, Science Publishers (Enfield, USA): 47-69.

DIOGO, R., M. CHARDON & P. VANDEWALLE (2003). Functional morphology of catfishes: movements of barbels. In: Arratia, G., B.G. Kapoor, M. Chardon & R. Diogo (eds.), Catfishes, Science Publishers (Enfield, USA): 203-220.

Update: I have been in contact with the publishers and it seems that a virus has caused a number of errors to appear in Vol. 2. This is being reprinted, which should delay publication until late October.

I just received my copy of Vol. 1 today. Thumbed through it briefly and it looks nice, but as I mentioned earlier, probably too technicel for the average aquarist.
Here's a pic of the book cover. Kinda reminds you of the Jinkins' book on bristlenoses, no?



PS. Jools, I am up for a review, although I don't know what rules you have about people reviewing books they contributed to.

Silurus wrote:PS. Jools, I am up for a review, although I don't know what rules you have about people reviewing books they contributed to.

No worries there, I have reviewed at least three that I have contributed to (including the Jinkings one amusingly).

Gotta be a lot of great info for the $$$?

Jools

Gotta be a lot of great info for the $$$?

Lots. Especially since I didn't pay a single cent for it.

Volume 2 is probably of greater interest to aquarists, since it covers ecology and behavior. The first volume has too much technical stuff (phylogeny, evolution of feeding apparatus and barbel movements, and all that stuff).[/quote]

Hi,
suprisingly the quite interesting chapter from Mary Power is available for free as PDF or Text on her website:

http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/pl_ ... ow_doc=yes

And, also suprisingly, two chapters of this work are from Vienna, so even Austrians can get a reprint for free this time easily ;)

Catfishes

Editors
G. Arratia: Museum für Naturkunde der, Humbolt Universitaet, Berlin, Germany
B.G. Kapoor: Formerly Professor of Zoology, Gwalior University, India
M. Chardon: Laboratory of Functional and Evolutionary Morphology, Univ. Liège, Belgium
R. Diogo: Laboratory of Functional and Evolutionary Morphology, Univ. Liège, Belgium

ISBN 1-57808-261-7; December 2003; 844 pages (2 vols.)

Catfishes is a landmark publication containing 26 scientific chapters dealing with diverse information on fossil and modern siluriform fishes, providing an overview of knowledge, current research, and scientific disagreements yet to be solved concerning siluriforms. The book is a synthesis of specialized articles that present the current state of knowledge of different aspects of catfish biology, each supplemented with extensive lists of literature.

The book is divided in two volumes. Volume 1 includes sixteen chapters on the anatomy, function and functional morphology, and the phylogenetic relationships among siluriforms and systematics of certain catfishes groups. Volume 2 includes ten chapters on the fossil record and paleodistribution, ecology and ethology, development and sensory biology. The book will be useful to ichthyologists and students.

Volume 1

Part I: Anatomy

Catfish Head Skeleton: An Overview
G. Arratia

Review of Superficial Cranial Musculature of Catfishes, with Comments on Plesiomorphic States
R. Diogo and P. Vandewalle

Weberian Apparatus in Catfish
M. Chardon, E. Parmentier and P. Vandewalle

The Siluriform Postcranial Skeleton: An Overview
G. Arratia

Internal Anatomy
B.G. Kapoor, B. Khanna, R. Diogo, E. Parmentier and M. Chardon

The Skin of Catfishes: A Review
G. Arratia

Part II: Function and Functional Morphology

Functional Morphology of Catfishes: Movements of Barbels
R. Diogo, M. Chardon and P. Vandewalle

Feeding Mechanisms
D. Adriaens

Sound Production, Spine Locking, and Related Adaptations
M. Fine and F. Ladich

Poisonous Catfishes: Venom Apparatus, Acanthotoxins, Crinotoxins, and other Skin Secretions
C. Perrière and F. Goudey-Perrière

Part III: Phylogeny, Systematics, and some Problematic Groups

State of the Art of Recent Siluriform Systematics
G.G. Teugels

Higher Level Phylogeny of Siluriformes (Teleostei: Ostariophysi): An Overview
R. Diogo

Phylogeny and Classification of 'Pimelodidae'
O.A. Shibata

Anatomy, Phylogeny, and Taxonomy of Amphiliidae
R. Diogo

Phylogeny and Systematics of Bagridae
H.H. Ng

Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Clariidae: An Overview
G.G. Teugels and D. Adriaens

Volume 2

Part IV: Fossil Record

Paleontology and Palaeobiogeography of Catfishes
M. Gayet and F.J. Meunier

Part V: Ecology and Ethology

Ecology and Behaviour of Catfishes
E. Baras and P. Laleye

Life Cycles, Limiting Factors, and the Behavioral Ecology of Four Loricariid Catfishes in a Panamanian River
M.E. Power

Ecology and Ethology of Subterranean Catfishes
E. Trajano

Part VI: Development

Embryonic and Larval Development in Catfishes
D. Adriaens and P. Vandewalle

Part VII: Sensory Biology

Vision in Catfishes
S.P. Collin

Audition
F. Ladich and A.H. Bass

Olfactory System in Catfishes
J. Caprio and T.E. Finger

Taste and Solitary Chemoreceptor Cells
B.G. Kapoor and T.E. Finger

Nitric Oxide Synthase in the Gill and Air-Sac of the Indian Catfish Heteropneustes fossilis
G. Zaccone, A. Mauceri, L. Ainis, A. Licata and S. Fasulo

Shane,

Any chance of splitting that data up into two pages and adding some personal comment with an aquarist slant and sending it through for the book review section.

That is unless someone else wishes to tackle the review of II?

Jools