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I was snorkelling with these fish in Mexico about 35 miles South of Cancun. Looking at fishbase, the Mexican species of this genus are:

<I>Rhamdia guatemalensis
Rhamdia laticauda
Rhamdia macuspanensis
Rhamdia parryi
Rhamdia quelen
Rhamdia reddelli </I>

but I do not know more than it is not the blind cave <I>Rhamdia</I> (<I>R. reddelli</I>) and maybe it is the most widely distributed <I>R. quelen</I>? This fish was a very non-descript dark grey. I have a few pictures but they are not too good, ID must be a bit of a long shot. Here is one pic anyway.



Jools

Rhamdia guatemalensis: Synonym of R. quelen, according to Silfvergrip (1996)
Rhamdia laticauda: Valid
Rhamdia macuspanensis: a cave-restricted species
Rhamdia parryi: Synonym of R. laticauda, according to Silfvergrip (1996)
Rhamdia quelen: Valid

So there are only two species to consider. Rhamdia laticauda is said to be a more rheophilic species found at higher elevations and R. quelen is more widespread in the Yucatán Peninsula, so the latter is my best guess.

jools

if i may ask what type of camera equipment where you useing here? i'm just curious. thanks

ken walker

Just curious, what is the size of the fish?

KWALKER wrote:jools

if i may ask what type of camera equipment where you useing here? i'm just curious. thanks

ken walker

This was taken using one of the $10/£7 disposable underwater cameras. The kodak one turned out the best from the 3 I tried.

Jools

RogerMcAllen wrote:Just curious, what is the size of the fish?

About 5" SL. There were slightly larger ones in deeper water but it was too dark for pictures there.

Jools

This fish -as well as the smaller R laticauda- would make an excellent catfish for the Central American cichlid-tank!

Despite it's size (about 30-35 cm max if I'm not mistaken) it would be well suited for the 150G and up tanksize...

Anybody ever heard of these being exported from Central America for the hobby??

I know a couple of million "Central-Americanfish"-keepers in mainland Europe that would be interested in genuine Central American cats, so that they can ditch the Pims, Syno's and Pleco's from those tanks, where those cats obvious do NOT belong.

I have never seen either Rhamdia species imported for the hobby.....

They show up from now and then, possibly as contaiminants. I still have one (collected from a cenote in Mexico by a fellow student working on poeciliids) at the moment. Used to have two, but I housed them in the same tank and they were occasionally beating each other up, so I gave one to another fellow student for his central American cichlid tank. Unfortunately, that one decided the outside of the tank was more fun than inside, so that was the end of that story.

I had what I think was a Rhamdia Quelen.I didn't have a solid ID on the fish as I was guessing by comparing to a photo in Aquarium Fish Magazine.It was the only one I've seen of it's kind.Bought it in a P*tland Di$count in Jersey City NJ.Probably a contaminant.

Although now considered a junior synonym of Rhamdia laticauda, Barbour and Cole originally described this fish as R. sacrificii in 1906. Barbour and Cole chose the specific name as reference to the catfish's habitat in a sacrificial cenote near Chichen Itza. They really looked like Hemibagrus to me!
-Shane