Eye spot catfish
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Eye spot catfish ( Auchenoglanis occidentalis ) |
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| Auchenoglanis occidentalis | ||||||||||||
| ( Valenciennes , 1840) |
The eye spot catfish ( Auchenoglanis occidentalis ) is a species of catfish from the Auchenoglanididae family that is widespread in lakes and large rivers in tropical Africa.
distribution
The distribution area extends in northeast Africa from the Egyptian Nile (in the south near Luxor and Aswan ) over the White and Blue Nile in Sudan , the Tekeze-Setit , Baro , Omo and Wabishebelle in Ethiopia to Lake Turkana and Juba . In West Africa it occurs in Senegal , Gambia , Casamance , Corubal , Géba , Sassandra , Bandama , Comoé , in the river basin of the Volta , in Niger and Ogun , in the catchment area of Lake Chad and in the Cross River . In the extreme west of its range, it lives sympatric with Auchenoglanis biscutatus . In general, Auchenoglanis occidentalis is absent in waters that flow through heavily forested areas. Nevertheless, there are also deposits in the Congo basin . The easternmost occurrences are in some of the great lakes of East Africa, in Lake Albert and Lake Edward , as well as in Lake Tanganyika and its tributaries Rusizi and Malagarasi .
features
The eye spot catfish is a maximum of 70 cm long. The catfish has a moderately stocky body that is completely free of scales. The snout is pointed and surrounded by three pairs of barbels , the lowest of which is the longest and extends to the edge of the gill cover . The dorsal fin and pectoral fins have powerful spiked rays that can be locked. The adipose fin is large. The color of the catfish is variable according to the large area of distribution and, with a beige base color, it is either evenly covered with closely spaced dark points or large, irregular or honeycomb-shaped brown to olive-brown spots, which are divided by light, grid-like lines. Single-colored dark brown to light purple-brown specimens also occur. The underside is whitish-yellow.
- Fins formula : dorsal I / 7–8, anal III – IV / 7–8, pectoral 1 / 8–9, ventral 1/5.
Way of life
Auchenoglanis occidentalis lives in large lakes and rivers, especially in shallow areas with muddy bottoms. It is omnivorous and feeds mainly on plankton, mollusks , seeds and detritus . The eggs are laid in a nest and guarded by the male, and so are the fry after hatching. In Lake Tanganyika laying airbreathing catfish Dinotopterus cunningtoni its eggs in the nests of giraffe catfish which are then guarded by this and protected.
literature
- Hans-Jochim Franke: Handbook of Welskunde. Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover 1986, ISBN 3-7842-0315-9 .
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish . Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 2002, ISBN 3-89350-991-7 (unchanged reprint of the Leipzig 1990 edition).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Auchenoglanis occidentalis in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2010. Posted by: Azeroual, A., Entsua-Mensah, M., Getahun, A., Hanssens, M., Lalèyè, P. & Moelants, T., 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- ↑ Ochi, H. & Onchi, T. & Yanagisawa, Y. (2001): Alloparental care between catfishes in Lake Tanganyika. Journal of Fish Biology 59: 1279-1286.
- ^ Stefan H. Reissmann: Interspecific brood care in East African catfish. PDF ( Memento of the original from December 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Auchenoglanis occidentalis on Fishbase.org (English)