An obligate predator by nature, but captive specimens readily accept strips of white fish, whole shrimp, earthworms, and similar once they are recognised as food.

Adult individuals are unlikely to require feeding on a daily basis with 1-2 meals per week sufficient.

All members of the family Auchenipteridae are thought to practise internal insemination and females can carry mature, unfertilised eggs and sperm packets inside the body for unspecified periods of time.

When conditions are satisfactory fertilisation is triggered and the eggs deposited, and there is n…

The genus Centromochlus is diagnosable by members having the proximal anal-fin radials enlarged and fused to each other at the base, forming a single ossified structure.

It’s sometimes included in the putative subfa…

Apparently this species is polymorphic with body patterning varying significantly depending on locality. Individuals collected from black water habitats tend to be noticeably darker in overall colouration, for example, with this being particularly evident among populations from the Guiana Shield.

The genus Ageneiosus was at one point classified in…

The genus Ageneiosus was at one point classified in the family Ageneiosidae alongside the genus Tetranematichthys, but this was not accepted by all authors. The grouping remains poorly-studied with the last major revision having been conducted by Watson (1990) in his unpublished dissertation, in which A. inermis was included under the currently synonymous name A. brevifilis. It can be separated from the majority of the genus (except A. marmoratus) by possession of a truncate caudal fin, and from…

This species may also be seen on sale as 'Guyana slopehead catfish' 'dolphin catfish' or 'hammerhead catfish'. The attractive juvenile patterning is largely lost as the fish grow but this nevertheless remains an impressive predatory species for the larger aquarium.

The genus Ageneiosus was at one point classified in the family Ageneiosidae alongside the genus Tetranematichthys, but this was not accepted by all…

This species is also known by the alternative vernacular name of ‘Zamora woodcat’, and is often misidentified as A. thoracatus. The latter is a valid species and very similar to A. coracoideus in that the coracoid bone is exposed ventrally and covered only by a thin layer of integument in both species. The two differ principally in the number of anal fin rays…