Gill tube catfish
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| Heteropneustidae | ||||||||||||
| Hora , 1936 | ||||||||||||
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| Müller , 1840 |
The gill tube catfish ( Heteropneustes ( Gr. "Hetero" = "different", "deviating"; "pneo" = "breath")) are a species of catfish (Siluriformes ) widespread in South Asia ( Pakistan , India , Sri Lanka , Burma , Thailand ) ). They are the only genus in the Heteropneustidae family .
features
The fish have an elongated, laterally compressed body. The head is strongly flattened, with two pairs of long barbels on the upper jaw and two pairs on the lower jaw. The dorsal fin is short, without a hard ray , the anal fin is elongated. Two air tubes begin behind the gills (name! - hence the old scientific name Saccobranchus ), which reach under the back muscles to the base of the tail, and enable the animals to breathe air like a lung. Gill tube catfish are 15 to 30 centimeters long. They predatory feed on invertebrates and smaller fish. They lay their eggs in pits they dug themselves, and both parents guard the spawn and the fry.
Systematics
According to Nelson 2006, the tube- gill catfish are placed in the monogeneric family Heteropneustidae. They are the sister group of the gill sack catfish (Clariidae). Often they are assigned to these as subfamily Heteropneustinae or combined with the Clariidae to form the superfamily Clarioidea.
species
The genus Heteropneustes currently comprises 5 species:
- Heteropneustes fossilis ( Bloch , 1794)
- Heteropneustes kemratensis ( Fowler , 1937)
- Heteropneustes longipectoralis Rema Devi & Raghunathan , 1999
- Heteropneustes microps ( Günther , 1864)
- Heteropneustes nani Hossain et al. , 2013
In Heteropneustes fossilis it is likely to be three very closely related species with different distribution area (in northeast India, south India and Southeast Asia ( allopatric speciation )).
literature
- Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World . John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sahat Ratmuangkhwang, Prachya Musikasinthorn, Yoshinori Kumazawab: Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of air sac catfishes of the Heteropneustes fossilis species complex (Siluriformes: Heteropneustidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, May 2014, doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2014.05.009
Web links
- Gill tube catfish on Fishbase.org (English)