Clarias liocephalus
| Clarias liocephalus | ||||||||||||
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Clarias liocephalus |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Clarias liocephalus | ||||||||||||
| Boulenger , 1898 |
Clarias liocephalus is a species of catfish from the family of the gill sac catfish(Clariidae)widespread in East Africa. She is on Lake Victoria , in Lake Edward , in Lake George , in Lake Kivu , on Lake Tanganyika , in smaller lakes in Uganda and Rwanda , in Lake Bangweulu and Lake Mweru , in the Kagera River , in Malagarasi , in Ruzizi , in Tana , in the Kunene , the Okavango , in the upper Zambezi and in the Kafue , and in the Zambian Congo .
features
Clarias liocephalus has an elongated body with long dorsal and anal fin. It becomes a maximum of 32 cm long and has 55 to 58 vertebrae. Compared to other Clarias species, the front body is thicker and looks compressed. Seen from above, the head is oval to triangular, the muzzle rounded. The eyes are rather sideways. The mouth is covered with relatively wide tooth plates. The gill rakes are short and far apart. The pectoral fin spine is relatively short, the inner and outer edges of the spine are serrated, the teeth on the outer edge being particularly strong, encompassing the entire length of the spine and the teeth pointing upwards. The fish are monochrome black-brown on the top and sides.
- Fin formula : dorsal 67-79; Anal 53-67
Way of life
Clarias liocephalus lives both in cool, fast flowing mountain streams with a stony subsoil, as well as in swamps that are covered with papyrus or water lily plants or are weed by other plants. So far, no occurrences have been found in waters lower than 915 meters above sea level. Clarias liocephalus feeds omnivorously .
Systematics
Clarias liocephalus was described in 1898 by the British ichthyologist George Albert Boulenger and belongs in the genus Clarias to the subgenus Brevicephaloides ( Teugels, 1982 ), whose members have a particularly long body and a short and broad head.
literature
- Hans-Jochim Franke: Handbook of Welskunde. Urania-Verlag, 1985.
- Guy G. Teugels & Dominique Adriaens: Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Clariidae: An Overview in Catfishes (2003) - Eds. G. Arratia, BG Kapoor, M. Chardon & R. Diogo - 2 Vols, pp.487 - ISBN 1-57808-261-7
Web links
- Clarias liocephalus on Fishbase.org (English)