Lake Malawi cats

[Tragically Hap]

A Malawi fishing guide's site state that there are 7 catfish species in Lake Malawi. I know only of Bagrus meridionalis and S. nyassae, so I previously posted a request for info here. Jools replied -- thanks -- but it appears I can't get at that reply anymore. So I'm hoping someone can help me put together an accurate list.

It's amazingly hard to find this info.

I recently attended a presentation by Ad Konings on the c@@@@ds in Lake Malawi, and he included some slides of cats he observed, included one species which he stated was "some sort of Synodontis." It was obviously S. petricola -- all fins outlined in white -- and I asked Ad about this after the show. He agreed that it appeared to be petricola, but there are no petricola in Lake Malawi, so it wasn't. OK: So what species ARE in that lake?

[Silurus]

Well let's see, for clariids, we have...
<i>Clarias gariepinus</i>
<i>C. theodorae</i>
<i>Bathyclarias euryodon</i>
<i>B. gigas</i>
<i>B. ilesi</i>
<i>B. longibarbis</i>
<i>B. nyasensis</i>
<i>B. rotundifrons</i>
<i>B. worthingtoni</i>
<i>Dinotopterus atribranchus</i>
<i>D. filicibarbis</i>
<i>D. foveolatus</i>
<i>D. jacksoni</i>
<i>D. loweae</i>

Heok Hee

[Tragically Hap]

What provenance! I'm googling each of them.

What about Synodontis? I thought S. nebulosus was in the Lake, but I'm told its found only in the surrounding watershed (which seems a bit unlikely).

[Silurus]

What I can find about <i>Synodontis nebulosus</i> indicates that it is not found in Lake Malawi. It occurs in the middle and lower Zambezi (and I think the lake is connected to the Zambezi drainage somehow), but not anywhere near the lake.
Anyway, many of the clariids listed above are endemic to the lake, but most of them are deepwater species, which means that they will never make it to the aquarium trade because they would certainly die very soon after being captured (not to mention they are probably as rare as hen's teeth).

Heok Hee

[jscoggs27]

@silurus
wow..i didnt know there could be so many different species of claridae in one place! apart form garipinus what do you know about these others, that arent listed in the cat e log?

[Silurus]

That they are mostly deepwater species found at the bottom of the lakes. They are so specialized in living in the deep, dark depths that they have essentially lost the accessory breathing organ (and the ability to breathe air along with it). Many of these species are a dark gray or black in color, and like many deepwater fish, they do not survive for very long when captured.
They are rare, and so no one really knows much about their biology.

Heok Hee

[Silurus]

Oops, left out another species of catfish found in Lake Malawi:
<i>Chiloglanis neumanni</i>

Heok Hee

[Sid Guppy]

And there's a Leptoglanis species (once a bagrid, now considered Amphiliidae) that lives in empty snail shells, the same way many Tanganyikan dwarf cichlids do.
But I don't know the speciesname.

A few others that occur in Lake Malawi:
Malapterurus electricus, the Electric cat
Auchenoglanis guttatus or A occidentalis; the Giraffenose cat (depends on wich source? what's the difference between them?)

[Rusty]

A few others that occur in Lake Malawi:
Malapterurus electricus, the Electric cat
Auchenoglanis guttatus or A occidentalis; the Giraffenose cat (depends on wich source? what's the difference between them?)

Roberts 2000 claims that no Malepteruridae sp. live in Malawi, only Tanganyika.

[Silurus]

Rusty,

<i>Malapterurus</i> is found in Malawi. <i>Malapterurus shirensis</i> has been recorded from the Shire River drainage, which connects the Zambezi River to Lake Malawi. I am not 100% sure that it occurs in the lake, though. The records are vague about this, but seem to imply that it does.

Heok Hee

[Dinyar]

And there's a Leptoglanis species (once a bagrid, now considered Amphiliidae) that lives in empty snail shells, the same way many Tanganyikan dwarf c*****ds do.
But I don't know the speciesname.

A few others that occur in Lake Malawi:
Malapterurus electricus, the Electric cat
Auchenoglanis guttatus or A occidentalis; the Giraffenose cat (depends on wich source? what's the difference between them?)

Rusty is right. No Malapteruridae in Lake Malawi. M. tanganyikaensis from L. Tanganyika is the only electric cat from a Rift Lake.

Likewise, Auchenoglanis occidentalis is found in L. Tanganyika but not in L. Malawi.

Parauchenoglanis guttatus is from W. Africa (the Congo basin and Cameroon).

If I recall correctly, Leptoglanis rotundiceps is only found in the L. Malawi catchment, not in the lake itself.

Dinyar

[Dinyar]

That they are mostly deepwater species found at the bottom of the lakes. They are so specialized in living in the deep, dark depths that they have essentially lost the accessory breathing organ (and the ability to breathe air along with it). Many of these species are a dark gray or black in color, and like many deepwater fish, they do not survive for very long when captured.
They are rare, and so no one really knows much about their biology.

Heok Hee

You may be right about this Heok Hee, but I have some questions. Malawi is not a very deep lake. Mean depth is close to 300 m. But in all Rift lakes, AFAIK, anoxia occurs at >200 m. Moreover, unlike L. Tang., the shores shelve gently, so you don't get into deep water until really far from the shore.

I also read that nowadays fish exprters in the Rift lakes dive to great depths, well over 50 m, and bring fish up in a multi-stage, multi-day acclimitization process. Once acclimatized, most of these fish (ciklids, mostly -- did I beat the thought police?) do just fine in aquaria.

It may well be that many of the deepwater clarriids would not adapt well to life in shallow water (e.g., aquaria), but I suspect there must be a number that are from habitats at a depth of <80 m and could adapt to aquarium life. Could there be other reasons we don't see these fish in the hobby? Of course, all Clarriids are banned from import into the US. But I suspect that there is just no demand for Rift lake Clariids because they're (1) tough to catch in relatively deep water, (2) for the most part, grow pretty large, (3) highly predatory, and (4) unattactive and reclusive.

Whadya think?

Dinyar

[jscoggs27]

Clariids unatractive!!!!!!!!!! why I oughta..........

jason

[Dinyar]

I recently attended a presentation by Ad Konings on the c@@@@ds in Lake Malawi, and he included some slides of cats he observed, included one species which he stated was "some sort of Synodontis." It was obviously S. petricola -- all fins outlined in white -- and I asked Ad about this after the show. He agreed that it appeared to be petricola, but there are no petricola in Lake Malawi, so it wasn't.

Some months ago, JFK posted a similar question to the Catfish List. If there is a Synodontis with white fin edging in L. Malawi, it is almost certainly a newly introduced alien from L. Tanganyika. (Possibly S. petricola, but ALL endemic L. Tang Synodontis have white fin edging, especially when young.)

Dinyar

[Silurus]

Dinyar,

I spoke a little too soon back there about <i>Bathyclarias</i> not being able to survive in shallow water. While it is true that many of these species typically occur in about 70 m od water, <i>B. nyasenesis</i> has been recorded to come up to the surface and gorge on flies hatching on the water surface. However, they all have highly reduced accessory breathing organs, which means that most species will seldom, if ever, come anywhere near the surface. And although they are reportedly rare, this rarity is more likely the result of poor sampling.
Some of these clariids are actually pretty cool. <i>Bathyclarias foveolatus</i> is so bizarre looking that only people like you and me would say that it's beautiful (it has a very depressed head, black coloration and a pattern of pits on its body that makes it look like a leper). That said, I can imagine why no collectors would take an interest in them as aquarium fish. with all those colorful "C" perch-like fish in there, who would want an "ugly" old <i>Bathyclarias</i>?
Actually, I have found the most interesting fish to keep are the non-<i>Clarias</i> clariids. Kept an <i>Encheloclarias</i> (that's the Asian version of the vundu) once, but that's another story...
Too bad about the import ban....the vundu (<i>Heterobranchus</i>) has always been one of my dream fish.

Heok Hee

[Rusty]

Some of these clariids are actually pretty cool. <i>Bathyclarias foveolatus</i> is so bizarre looking that only people like you and me would say that it's beautiful (it has a very depressed head, black coloration and a pattern of pits on its body that makes it look like a leper). That said, I can imagine why no collectors would take an interest in them as aquarium fish. with all those colorful "C" perch-like fish in there, who would want an "ugly" old <i>Bathyclarias</i>?
Actually, I have found the most interesting fish to keep are the non-<i>Clarias</i> clariids. Kept an <i>Encheloclarias</i> (that's the Asian version of the vundu) once, but that's another story...
Too bad about the import ban....the vundu (<i>Heterobranchus</i>) has always been one of my dream fish.

Yeah the vundu does look really cool. According to Burgess, even birds are unsafe around it! Are there any pix of one jumping? I'd like to make it my avatar

My dad was thinking of changing his user name to Candy Ru, a Chinese girl's name, but I think he should change it to "Vundu" instead, because it aounds more like an Indian man's name! Sounds almost like vindaloo, my favorite dish!

Rusty

[Sid Guppy]

You could talk him onto changing it to Candiru.....
sounds like Candy Ru, but it's a whole different ballgame


ouch!


anybody keeping Trichomycterids here btw??

[Rusty]

[captain obvious]Thats the joke[/captain obvious]

[Silurus]

I have! I have! Kept a <i>Pseudostegophilus nemurus</i> once. It was kinda fun watching the guy strip scales and mucus off of feeder koi.
Hey SG, if you're interested maybe we can take this to the South American cats forum. Don't want to digress too much you know.

Heok Hee