Beaufortia Spp.

[The.Dark.One]

Looking at Fauna Sinica: Pisces: Cypriniformes III, B. kweichowensis kweichowensis and B. kweichowensis gracilicauda both seem to have a lot of dark pigment on the body. B. leveretti appears to be the spotted species we see in the hobby.

The mouth, lip and barbel structure is different on them all.

[Matt]

Here’s a reply (reproduced with permission) I received from the gentleman who wrote this. He lives in China and his site makes interesting reading in general.

QUOTE

“Beaufortia are not yet farm bred. This species is wild caught and shipped over Guangdong Province, China. This is the Chinese capital for aquarium fish trade. Some fishes might be transhipped via Singapore. This makes sense, since almost all Singaporian trader are Chinese emigrates, especially from the southern provinces and speak Cantonese, not Mandarin. Thus communication is convenient. Initially B. kweichowensis was labbeled as ‘butterfly pleco’, then ‘butterfly loach’. Chinese farm breeder mainly breed gold fish and live bearers, but also offer autochthonous fishes to offer more variety to customers. They recently discovered shrimps as an asset, now this branch is booming. They are breeders solely engaged in shrimp breeding, nowadays.

The fish on your pic should be B. kweichowensis. it has been described from Upper reaches of Xijiang River, Guizhou Province, China, known as the Pearl River, but also occurs in Guangdong Province. In this area there is good infrastucture, so fish tranportation to the Guangdong based exporters shouldn’t be an issue.

Differentiation: B. kweichowensis has distinct black spots (vs. faint spots in B. leveretti), distinctly marginally patterned paired fins (black-white)(vs. no margins), anus location at the posterior border of ventrals (vs. anus below ventrals). B. leveretti has a prominent middle incision in the lower jaw.

Another very similar species is B. daon from Na Xam and Red River basins. The habitus is very much like B. leveretti, but no incision in lower jaw and anus midway from posterior margin of ventrals to anal fin.

I don’t think there are exports of B. leveretti and B. daon from Vietnam. Both species occur in northern Vietnam. Infrastructure is far from convenient there, and all other interesting endemic balitorid species are occuring in central Vietnam, such as famous Sewellia spp. Anoter reason is that the aquarium industry in Vietnam is not that developed at present.

The first western author, who reported B. leveretti outside of Hainan was Kottelat, 2001 (Northern Vietnam fishes). Various Chinese authors report this species from outside Hainan, in lieterature or in the web. The problem is certainly Chinese language which makes the bulk of literature inaccessible for most of us.

Another problem is that there is currently no ichthyologist working on this group of fishes.”

[Matt]

What’s the max SL for Beaufortia?

[Matt]

The profile is up. As always thanks to all who contributed images and please holler if you spot any mistakes or think some info is missing.

[torso]

very good Matt

[Author]

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