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Collected these in a blackwater tributary of the main Amazon on the Peruvian (south side) of the main Amazon channel two weeks ago. When first collected they were an overall very dark brown. The pattern did not show up until after a week in captivity. They have me stumped. I did not see anything in the Evers and Seidel book that looked like a match.
-Shane
"My journey is at an end and the tale is told. The reader who has followed so faithfully and so far, they have the right to ask, what do I bring back? It can be summed up in three words. Concentrate upon Uganda."
Winston Churchill, My African Journey
I collected some of these (congeners at least) in Peru. I do not think I have seen one with the black horizontal stripe in the caudal though. I will need to see if I took pics of them...
Anyone know where I can see a photos of O. carinata? It is not listed in the Welse Atlas. There is a picture in the Aquarium Atlas Photo Index (p. 329), but it looks very different to me. Biotope was a blackwater caño about 20-30 feet across with almost no flow. Water was very dark brown and I assume very soft and acidic. These were mostly caught where the rising waters had begun to flood terrestrial vegetation. Substrate, given that it was the dry season, was clay with leaf litter. The water was fairly cool (around 78F) due to the overhanging jungle. Collected alongside were Apisto spp. Farlowella, the black water Corydoras leucomelas, several tetras of the genus Pyrrhulina, some small Rineloricaria, a Loricariicthys sp. and some small silver hatchet tetras. There were some other odds and ends, but the above stuck out.
-Shane
"My journey is at an end and the tale is told. The reader who has followed so faithfully and so far, they have the right to ask, what do I bring back? It can be summed up in three words. Concentrate upon Uganda."
Winston Churchill, My African Journey
The only photo I have seen is the picture of the holotype in Aquino & Schaefer (2002). But then, your collection locality is presumably near enough to the type locality that we can suppose this would be topotypic or near-topotypic material.
Unfortunately, O. carinata is said to lack a distinct trunk lateral stripe. Oxyropsis wrightiana looks like a better candidate now (although the caudal peduncle seems to deep for O. wrightiana).
So HH, looking at the holotype are you pretty sure of the ID? The fish pictured in the Baensch Atlas Photo Index might be incorrectly identified (surprise, surprise) and that might also explain why Evers and Seidel did not use the photo in their book.
-Shane
"My journey is at an end and the tale is told. The reader who has followed so faithfully and so far, they have the right to ask, what do I bring back? It can be summed up in three words. Concentrate upon Uganda."
Winston Churchill, My African Journey
The shape suggests O. carinata, but the color suggests O. wrightiana. The two species are sympatric, so it's hard to tell...
How strong are the serrations on the posterior edge of the pectoral spine? This is a good way to tell the two species apart.
I leave it in your capable hands. I could always e-mail Scott Schaefer a pic and see what he says.
-Shane
"My journey is at an end and the tale is told. The reader who has followed so faithfully and so far, they have the right to ask, what do I bring back? It can be summed up in three words. Concentrate upon Uganda."
Winston Churchill, My African Journey
Baensch, H.A. and R. Riehl, 1991 Aquarien atlas. Bd. 3. Melle: Mergus, Verlag für Natur- und Heimtierkunde, Germany. 1104 p. 370
Burgess, W.E., 1989 An atlas of freshwater and marine catfishes: a preliminary survey of the Siluriformes. T.F.H. Publications, Neptune City, New Jersey. 439
Eschmeyer, W.N., Editor, 1998 Catalog of fishes. Special Publication, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 3 vols. 2905 p.
Anon., 1999 Fish collection database of the Natural History Museum, London (formerly British Museum of Natural History (BMNH)). Natural History Museum, London (formerly British Museum of Natural History (BMNH)).
Anon., 2000 The icthyological collection of the Zoological Museum Hamburg (ZMH) Division of Icthyology and Herpetology, Zoological Museum Hamburg (ZMH)
Schaefer, S.A., 2003 Loricariidae - Hypoptopomatinae (Armored catfishes). p. 321-329. In R.E. Reis, S.O. Kullander and C.J. Ferraris, Jr. (eds.) Checklist of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, Brasi.l
Anon., 2001 Fish collection database of the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution). Smithsonian Institution - Division of Fishes.
Anon., 2002 Fish collection database of the American Museum of Natural History American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, USA
Aquino, A.E. and S.A. Schaefer, 2002 Revision of Oxyropsis Eigenmann and Eigenmann, 1889 (Siluriformes, Loricariidae). Copeia 220(2):374-390. 381;fig.6;tab.1
Anon., 2003 Fish Collection of the Royal Ontario Museum Royal Ontario Museum