Silurus biwaensis
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Silurus biwaensis |
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| ( Tomoda , 1961) |
Silurus biwaensis ( Japanese 琵琶湖 大 鯰 Biwako ōnamazu , English Giant Lake Biwa Catfish ) is a large, endemic species of catfishthat occursonly in Lake Biwa, Japan.
distribution
Silurus biwaensis occurs exclusively in Lake Biwa, where a second endemic species of catfish lives with Silurus lithophilus .
description
This species of catfish is similar to the European catfish . It has an elongated cylinder-shaped body and reaches up to 118 centimeters in length and 17 kilograms in weight. The back is black, the belly white. The head is a little less than a quarter of the standard length . The lower jaw is significantly longer than the upper jaw. The single pair of barbels on the lower jaw is relatively short and fine, the barbels on the upper jaw only reach the pectoral fins in young animals. The dorsal fin has four to six rays. The pectoral fins have a hard ray and 13 to 15 soft rays, the ventral fins have a hard and nine to twelve soft rays. The anal fin has 71 to 83 soft rays. In the caudal fin , the upper lobe is six to seven rays longer than the lower one with seven to nine. The gill trap has two or three thorns on the upper arch and nine to twelve thorns on the lower arch. There are 14 to 16 Branchiostegal rays .
Way of life
Little is known about the way of life of Silurus biwaensis . It feeds on fish and lives on the bottom of the lake. S. biwaensis is the largest predatory fish in Lake Biwa. With the help of telemetric methods one tried to explain the migration behavior of the fish species. It was found that the fish are more or less true to their location and mostly stay near their spawning grounds. Other studies showed that the lake's subpopulations hardly mix.
Relationship with people
Some fishermen believe that the fish are able, earthquakes predict by changing their behavior for a pending earthquake. In Japanese mythology, it is even believed that earthquakes are caused by the movements of a giant catfish ( Ōnamazu ) below the earth's crust.
literature
- M. Kobayakawa: Systematic revision of the catfish genus Silurus, with description of a new species from Thailand and Burma. In: Jap. J. Ichthyol. 1989, 36 (2), pp. 155-186.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ a b c Silurus biwaensis on Fishbase.org (English)
- ↑ M. Kobayakawa, S. Okuyama: Fossils of Silurus biwaensis (Siluridae) from the Ueno Formation, Ancient Lake Biwa Japan. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Jap. Journal Ichtyol. 40 (4), 1994.
- ↑ M. Kobayakawa: Systematic revision of the catfish genus Silurus, with description of a new species from Thailand and Burma. In: Jap. J. Ichthyol. 1989, 36 (2), pp. 155-186.
- ↑ Biwa Museum ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ N. Takai, W. Sakamoto, M. Maehata, N. Arai, T. Kitagawa, Y. Mitsunaga: Settlement characteristics and habitats use of Lake Biwa catfish Silurus biwaensis measured by ultrasonic telemetry. In: Fishery Science. 1997, Vol. 63, pp. 181-187.
- ↑ N. Takai, W. Sakamoto: Identification of local populations of Lake Biwa catfish Silurus biwaensis in Japan on the basis of δ13C and δ15N analyzes. In: Canadian Journal of Zoology. 1999, 77 (2), pp. 258-266. doi : 10.1139 / z98-210
- ↑ The Best Earthquake Predictor is a Catfish. ( Memento of the original from July 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ito Kazuaki: Catfish and Earthquakes in Folklore and Fact.
