Gourdfish
| Gourdfish | ||||||||||||
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Male gourdfish ( Trichopodus pectoralis ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Trichopodus pectoralis | ||||||||||||
| Regan , 1910 |
The scoop threadfish ( Trichopodus pectoralis ), a labyrinth fish and also the largest recent " Eastern threadfish ", is widespread in Southeast Asia and far beyond.
features
Specimens with a total length of over 20 centimeters are reported from nature. Thus the snakeskin gourami is not only the largest gourami , but, after the giant gouramis and the kissing gourami , also the third largest anabantoidei in Asia at all. Its appearance is similar to that of a particularly large, somewhat elongated and less colored spotted threadfish . On an olive-green body color there are ten to 14 dark olive-green, relatively wide and irregular vertical bands, either continuous, x-, y- or also h-shaped, arranged one behind the other. A dark brown band runs from the tip of the snout to the base of the caudal fin , which is usually only visible as an interrupted dark spot in the vertical bands. This band is completely visible in juvenile fish, when they are frightened and during courtship ; it disappears completely during the spawning act. The intensity of the basic coloration of the ribbon drawings depends on the mood and the situation. Because of the small but distinctive scales in various shiny olive tones, the shovel threadfish is called "Snakeskin Gourami" (= snakeskin gourami) in English. All fins are transparent, but also greenish. The eponymous pectoral fins are narrower and longer than in all other eastern threadfish. A beige-colored, sometimes gold-shimmering, broad hem runs along the rounded anal fin . The dorsal fin of the females is short and rounded, that of the males slightly pointed and protruding to the middle of the caudal fin.
Fin formula : dorsal VII / 10-11, anal IX-XI / 36-38.
ecology
Charles Tate Regan described the gourdfish from the Malay Peninsula , Thailand and Singapore . One can only speculate about the original distribution area. Spearfishes have been spread across Thailand, Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula because of their popularity as food fish . As a neozoon , the species now colonizes most of the large and small Sunda Islands , parts of India , Myanmar , Sri Lanka and the Caribbean island of Hispaniola . Spearfishes are mainly found in slow-flowing and stagnant waters , in oxygen-poor ponds, on cultivated areas (flooded rice fields ) and in irrigation systems. In a few reports on sites, mostly reference is made to the high water temperatures (> 30 ° C). This labyrinth fish has also been observed during short land migrations from one to the other body of water. In addition to molluscs , insects , insect larvae and approach food, paddle fish feed to a considerable extent on algae and higher plants .
Reproduction
Male paddle fish erect between plants, under the leaves of floating plants or under large plant leaves that are below the water level, a very small foam nest in relation to their body size , in which they build parts of plants. With a female attracted after intensive courtship, spawning takes place directly under the nest. Not all of the up to 5,000 very small eggs, which are lighter than water, float into the nest. But they are not collected by the male. Its brood care only consists of driving away the female after the spawning phase and an intensive defense of the nest area until the larvae swim freely. The very small larvae hatch after one to one and a half days. After their yolk supply is used up, they leave the nest on the third or fourth day.
Importance to humans
Due to their size and tasty meat, paddle fish are an important source of protein for human nutrition. Because they reproduce easily and are relatively fast-growing, they were naturalized in much of South Asia and practically all of Southeast Asia. Paddles are caught with nets and offered live or freshly dead. Some islands belonging to Thailand and Indonesia export filleted meat to the mainland. In 1896 it was first imported into Europe by the animal dealer JFG Umlauf, Hamburg . In Europe, paddle fish are only rarely offered in stores and are kept in aquariums . Few specialists deal with their breeding and try to keep local variants pure. In contrast, the species in the USA and Canada is a very popular aquarium fish , which is part of the standard range there and is reproduced in breeding ponds in Florida .
Systematics
In 1910, Regan described the gourdfish as Trichopodus pectoralis . One holotype is missing; two lectotypes are in the British Museum of Natural History in London under catalog numbers 232 and 233 . There are two synonyms : Osphromenus cantoris and Trichogaster pectoralis . The generic name indicates the thread-like ventral fins ("Thrix" = "hair", "Pous" = "foot or fin"). The adjectivistic species name emphasizes the body characteristic that is important for the first person to describe it, the large ventral fins (= pectorals ). Together with the mosaic threadfish ( Trichopodus leerii ), the moonlight threadfish ( Trichopodus microlepis ) and the spotted threadfish ( Trichopodus trichopterus ), the gourdfish form the group of "Eastern threadfish".
literature
- Michael Kokoscha: Labyrinth Fish . Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-8001-7431-6 .
- Jörg Vierke: Labyrinth fish . Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung W. Keller & Co., Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-440-05594-9 .
swell
- J. Freyhof, DV Serov, TN Nguyen: A preliminary checklist of the freshwater fishes of the River Dong Nai, South Vietnam. In: Bonn Zoological Contributions. Vol. 49, No. 1-4, 2000, pp. 93-99. ( online ; PDF; 450 kB)
- JE Gray: Catalog of fish collected and described by Laurence Theodore Gronow, now in the British Museum . London 1854.
- M. Kottelat, AJ Whitten, SN Kartikasari, S. Wirjoatmodjo: Freshwater fishes of Western Indonesia and Sulawesi. Periplus Editions, Hong Kong 1993, ISBN 0-945971-60-5 .
- M. Kottelat, KKP Lim: Freshwater fishes of Sarawak and Brunei Darussalam: a preliminary annotated check-list. In: The Sarawak Museum Journal (New Series). Vol. 48, No. 69, 1995, pp. 227-256.
- M. Kottelat, E. Widjanarti: The fishes of Danau Sentarum National Park and the Kapuas Lakes area, Kalimantan Barat, Indonesia. In: The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Suppl. No. 13, 2005, pp. 139-173.
- M. Kottelat: Fishes of Laos. WHT Publications, 2001, ISBN 955-9114-25-5 .
- LR Parenti, KKP Lim: Fishes of the Rajang Basin, Sarawak, Malaysia. In: The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Suppl. No. 13, 2005, pp. 175-208.
- R. Pethiyagoda: Freshwater fishes of Sri Lanka. The Wildlife Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka, 1991, OCLC 1123261558 .
- WJ Rainboth: FAO species identification field guide for fishery purposes. Fishes of the Cambodian Mekong. Rome 1996, ISBN 92-5103742-6 .
- CT Regan: The Asiatic fishes of the family Anabantidae. In: Proceedings of the General Meetings for Scientific Business of the Zoological Society of London 1909. Academic press, London 1910, pp. 767-787.
Web links
- Trichopodus pectoralis on Fishbase.org (English)