Auchenoglanis occidentalis or senegali or?

[Viktor Jarikov]

~3.5". $32. Just arrived yesterday from WetSpot. Sold as occidentalis but to my ignorant eye looks senegali or maybe something else.

Whatcha you guys think? I wanted an occidentalis and looks like I didn't get what I wanted.

[Birger]

I think it is a

Auchenoglanis tanganicanus

these have been exported quite a bit lately and are all over the place, I have been asked to ID many of them.

Birger

[Birger]

Still get to a decent size.

birger

[Viktor Jarikov]

Many thanks, Birger! So mine is the same as this one from Austria (and I do recall more recent threads with this kind of g-cat) http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... nganicanus

What size do you think, just as Cat-eLog states 20" SL? Our Austrian colleague thinks they won't exceed 30-50 cm.

If so, it will be too small to go into its intended tank.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I linked this thread to my inquiry to WetSpot. A nice lady named Katie, with who I had worked before, sent me this reply. Looks like WetSpot is giving my case due diligence, proving their generally admirable reputation.

What do you guys think of her arguments? @Birger @yellowcat @apo1980


Hi Viktor,

Thanks for your email. We’re sorry to hear that the fish you received does not appear to be the one you were looking for! All of the shipments we’ve received of Giraffe Cats have come to us as Auchenoglanis occidentalis, and to the best of our knowledge we believed that to be true. But given that there is not a whole lot of information out there regarding the species of the Auchenoglanis genus and their differences, we contacted the supplier of this fish to further investigate.

Our supplier states that the latest batch of Auchenoglanis we received, of which your fish came from, were caught in Nigeria (VJ edit: underscore is mine). This rules out the supposition that your fish is A. tanganicanus (Lake Tanganyika), as well one of these other species: acuticeps (Lake Albert), senegali (Senegal), biscutatus (Nile River), wittei (Congo River), and sacchii (Omo River). Auchenoglanis occidentalis seem to be the most prevalent species in West Africa, but since recent years have seen fish thought to be occidentalis end up as other species after all, perhaps this is no longer the case. If it’s truly not occidentalis, it seems there is a chance that your Giraffe Cat is instead A. tchadiensis, since Nigeria does encompass some of the Lake Chad drainage where this species is found. To your knowledge, do you think this species better encompasses the characteristics you see in your fish?

Since we now have reasonable doubt that the Giraffe Cats we have are not occidentalis as we has thought, we have changed their scientific name on the inventory list to Auchenoglanis sp., reflecting that we do not have an appropriate, definitive species name for this fish.

I hope this helps clarify the identity of your fish! Please let us know your thoughts!

Thanks,

Katie Hall
The Wet Spot Tropical Fish
4310 NE Hancock St.
Portland, OR. 97213
PH: 503.719.7003

[Jools]

That's a pretty good reply - don't get that from many LFS'

Jools

[N0body Of The Goat]

My Auchenoglanis spp. grew at a rate that no other fish I've owned has come close to, after a quarantine period in my Aqua One 620T, while it was a skinny ~4cm SL baby. Within ~18 months, it was longer than the total length of my Synodontis notatus, at ~25cm SL! Then after ~2 years, it was as if the growth switch was turned off, stopping at ~30cm SL.

Consequently, I provisionally identified my one as A. tchadiensis, which to my bad memory your photos remind me of how my specimen looked as a juvenile.

I really wish I had taken frequent photos showing my one growing up, to perhaps help a tiny bit in spotting features that help identify a species at a young age and size.

[Viktor Jarikov]

from http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 05#p297955

You will notice victor the spotting is different between the two threads, the fish in this thread (VJ edit: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 05#p297955 ) I believe to be a. tanganicanus...the other (VJ edit: this thread) has different spotting and could be an undescribed species considering the area it was exported from.
.

Birger