Planet Catfish Announcement: 5 November 2005

[Silurus]

The nights are drawing in, here in Scotland the leaves are all but entirely off the trees and traditionally we see something of a steady increase in people using the site as their evening activity options diminish with the light. So, what have we got in store for the planet faithful to while away the dark hours?

Firstly there is Heok Hee Ngâ??s Catfish of the Month on Ompok bimaculatus. One that we may well be revisiting, as Heok Hee explains within, itâ??s certainly got potential to become more than one species in the coming years. Heok Hee has also been busy on the article front with an overview piece on the genus Akysis. Not to be outdone, Shane Linder has also a new article on his experiences with the dreaded parasitic catfish. Goldfish beware!

Iâ??ve been busy adding more images and a selection of videos too. Marc Stabel has been studiously researching catfish synonyms and Iâ??m plodding though his output and updating the site accordingly. This is important as many species change names and it is sometimes hard to keep up. The vast majority of visitors to the site will be more familiar with names like Corydoras barbatus than Scleromystax barbatus, Merodontotus tigrinus rather than Brachyplatystoma tigrinum and so forth. With the synonym pages in place, searching on the out-of-use name will yield results that should bring all levels of surfers bang up-to-date. Also planned is a review and article on the controversial pleco genus Panaque.

Iâ??ve also undertaken a complete overhaul of the site â??brandingâ?