Christmas-Nut

[Erwin]

I don't know how busy you're guys are over the Christmas days, but if you have some time left, could you please look at the picture and give me your opinions about what this little fish are.

They are from Peru, probably male and female (the latter on the right hand side), and are available in the trade as Parauchenipterus sp. "Small Spot". I don't think the genus is correct, but I don't know where to place them. The bigger female is 45mm SL, and didn't grow much in the last half of the year.



Merry Christmas!

Erwin

[Achim]

Hi Erwin,

looks like the Otorongo woodcat, labeled in the cat-e-log as Parauchenipterus sp. (2) to me. The spots of your fish are smaller, but the overall habitus fits.
Im a little confused with the genus name: Jools uses both names: Trachelyopterus and Parauchenipterus in the cat-e-log. According to Bertoletti et al. 1995, "..Trachelyopterus includes the species usually reffered to Parauchenipterus...". The paper is rather old, are there any newer publications (maybe CLOFFSCA again?) i am not aware of that split the group and made both names, Trachelyopterus and Parauchenipterus valid?
Btw: According to Ferraris, this: http://www.catfishes.org/public/species ... g=eng&id=9 is a Trachelyopterus. It reaches ~5cm SL max and has imo less in common with the larger species like T. (or P. galeatus.

Greetings and merry christmas,

Achim

[Dinyar]

Like Achim, and perhaps more so, I am a little confused about this, but my impression is that Parauchenipterus is the past, and Trachelyopterus is the future. It seems that most or all of what was Parauchenipterus is now or will soon be Trachelyopterus.

We had a fish (in the Catelog as

Trachelyopterus sp.(1)

), which was identified by Carl Ferraris, courtesy of Heok Hee, as Trachelyopterus, and your fish reminds me of it.

Dinyar

[Silurus]

I agree with Achim that those are Otorongo woodcats, which Carl considers an undescribed species.
Parauchenipterus is now a junior synonym of Trachelyopterus.