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Hi guys can anybody tell me any info about this catfish from south america the orinoco river to be precise. Its called ACESTEROHYNCHUS BATRARCHUS and it can swallow fish off its own size. u can see a photo of it on below water.com on its expedition page.

Not that much known really.
I've only ever seen this species once, a friend has several in a large aquarium.
They are not likely to turn up at your local outlet, they are extremely expensive.
Remarkable beasts, one has been collected with a Prochilodus on a couple of inches shorter than itself in it's stomach!
Probably quite tolerant of water conditions, they have a wide distribution across the Amazon and Orinoco regions.

The correct name for the catfish is <i>Asterophysus batrachus</i> (<i>Acesterorhynchus</i> is a predatory South American characin), and the only information I know of may be found in this study:
Royero, R. 1993. Notas sobre la capacidad de alimentacion del bagre sapo (<i>Asterophysus batrachus</i>), (Siluriformes-Auchenipteridae) y algunos datos sobre su distribucion en Venezuela. Acta Biologica Venezuelica 14(3): 69-73.

Hello,

I've colected this fish at night in Rio Negro with piabeiros. They call it "pacman" or something similar. Their appetite is something incredible (the fish not the piabeiros!). They are able to swallow fish their size(like small tucunare for instance). The stress of capture makes no diffrenece So we had to put one per container to avoid this. Japanese exporters seem to like this odd looking fish. The fish is scarce and demand high price

Hope this helps

Charly

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