Banjo Catfishes

The banjo catfish, Bunocephalus coracoideus, is an aspredinid catfish from Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. The most common member of its genus in dealers' tanks, it inhabits forest streams, lakes and ponds with a lot of leaf litter and is camouflaged to resemble a dead leaf. Largely inactive and secretive, it becomes active only after dark, and like other aspredinids it occasionally sheds its skin.

The banded banjo catfish, Platystacus cotylephorus, is an aspredinid catfish from estuarine and coastal waters of northern South America and Trinidad. Largely inactive and secretive, it is camouflaged to resemble a dead leaf and emerges only after dark, often lying buried in muddy substrates of fresh or brackish mangroves. During the spawning season females develop fleshy stalks called cotylephores on the belly, to which the eggs are attached until they hatch.