Erethistes pusillus

[Martin S]

Just wanted to show off a recent image I took with my new camera (Fuji FinePix S4000). I have assigned the image to the species in 'my cats'

Just a shame about the scratches on the glass!
Martin

[The.Dark.One]

Nice pic martin. These are a great little fish.

[Deb]

Great pic, Martin!
I love the nickname for these fish - "Giant" moth catfish. *lol*
(I have the "mini.")

WRT the photo, why not post a bigger size, like 640 X 480?

[Shovelnose]

Gorgeous fish. I especially love the annulation on their barbels. Looks lovely.

[Martin S]

WRT the photo, why not post a bigger size, like 640 X 480?

Your wish is my command
I cropped the original down to 800 x 497, and have uploaded that inplace of the resized image stored for My Cats.

Thanks all

[MatsP]

If you click on the photo you get the full size....

--
Mats

[The.Dark.One]

[quote="Deb"]
I love the nickname for these fish - "Giant" moth catfish.quote]

IMO that common name is for Hara horai. Not E. pusillus

[Deb]

WRT the photo, why not post a bigger size, like 640 X 480?

Your wish is my command
I cropped the original down to 800 x 497, ...

Thanks! Looks great! All the tiny details are showing up very well. I need a new camera; maybe the FinePix would be a good choice for me.
I hope you have a lot of enjoyment from these fish!

If you click on the photo you get the full size....

Yeah, I tried that on the first day. Seems to be working now.

I love the nickname for these fish - "Giant" moth catfish.

IMO that common name is for Hara horai. Not E. pusillus

I'm sure you have good reasons for saying this. If you feel very strongly about it why not post something in Cat-eLog Data Issues or Suggestions? Where do the common names come from anyway? Jools has said more than once that he likes creating common names and has noticed that shippers often consult the cat-eLog here to pick up the common name for their lists. It might be a good thing to have a discussion with him about it. There are very few keepers of either Hara horai or Erethistes pusillus (listed) so it's not very likely that a common name change would cause a big confusion. Just an idea.

[Shovelnose]

Indian lists have Hara hara as the Butterfly Catfish and H.jerdoni as the Dwarf Anchor Catfish.

[racoll]

IMO that common name is for Hara horai. Not E. pusillus

Hensen et al. (2010) call

Hara horai

the "Hora moth catfish", and

Erethistes pusillus

the "giant moth catfish".

On FishBase, no English common name is given for either species.

Common names are not unique, so the best thing PC can do is add as many common names as possible. My opinion is, if someone's using it, then it should be added.

[The.Dark.One]

I think though this is as a result of the confusion that surrounded Hara horai when they came in the hobby. Some people (inc the trade and this site IIRC) wrongly assigned them the name Erethistes pusillus.

I think the name Giant Moth Catfish is misleading when applied to E. pusillus.

[medaka]

The dark one wrote:

I think though this is as a result of the confusion that surrounded Hara horai when they came in the hobby. Some people (inc the trade and this site IIRC) wrongly assigned them the name Erethistes pusillus.

I think the name Giant Moth Catfish is misleading when applied to E. pusillus.

I have to agree with Steve, continued use of a misappropriate common name leads to confusion.
Just because some authors*, ** continue to use 'old' or misappropriate common names does not IMHO mean we should continue to use them.

A few years ago I was in a LFS and there were two species of mothcats in adjoining tanks; one tank had some Erthisies pusillus in it at around 45mm SL and the other tank had some Erethistes (Hara) horai at around 70mm SL. The E pusillus were marked up as 'The Giant Mothcat'. I overheard the shop assistant informing a customer the they are called the giant mothcat because they grow larger than any other mothcat'.

However; it has to be said that some other very good web sites contain erroneous information which can only add to our confusion.

*
A good example is Fish Base, a few years ago they showed a photograph on the Erethistes (Hara) horai page, which happened to be a photograph of Pseudolaguvia ribeiroi. and although quite a number of people informed Fish base of this error; fish Base continued to show that photograph against E (H) horai for a good few years. They have since changed the photograph, but although the new photograph is not of Pseudolaguvia ribeiroi it still isnt correct.
http://www.fishbase.us/Photos/PicturesS ... at=species.

**
Even some publications that come from a 'good' source are sometimes in error both in regards to identification and common names. Again an example being: TFH ornamental Aquarium Fish of India Tekriwal and Rao. 1999; page 107.
The first photograph is again of Pseudolaguvia ribeiroi. but the information beneath reads: "Elongated Moth Catfish 2cm, Hara horai (misra 1950)".
The third photograph is again wrong and the information beneath reads:Giant Moth Catfish, 10cm Hara filamentosa (Blyth) 1861.

Page 108 isn't any better.

[MatsP]

Could someone please post in the "Cat-eLog issues" forum about the need to "fix" the common names (feel free to discuss until you all or at least most of you agree first! ;) )

--
Mats

[Jools]

Common names are not unique, so the best thing PC can do is add as many common names as possible. My opinion is, if someone's using it, then it should be added.

Funnily enough, that's something Mats and I were discussing yesterday. My view is the same, but with the idea of there being significant use rather than just one offs. Furthermore we need one "principal" common name per species. That, I'm afraid, would just come down to me choosing it. And it's not a great system for L-numbers either, I know.

Notwithstanding ALL that, I agree with Mats in that some suggestions should be made in the Cat-eLog bugs forum to sort out common names for this group of fishes.

Cheers,

Jools