Results for “specimen”

This species is not recommended to those lacking the facilities to house it for life. Sadly it's all too often seen for sale as an attractive, silvery 2-3" juvenile, supposedly suitable for the general freshwater community tank. To make matters worse, it is also usually given an 'alluring' name such as 'black-finned' or 'silvertip' shark catfish. The fate of the majority of these specimens is in all likelihood a depressing one.

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.

Endemic to pthe upper Amazon basin in Peru, around the city of Iquitos. Most Astyanax spp. are not popular in the aquarium hobby, though the genus is among the most speciose within the family Characidae. A. kennedyi is no exception; you'll rarely see it offered for sale but may find the occasional specimen mixed among other species in shipments of wild fishes from Peru.

Most Astyanax spp. are not popular in the aquarium hobby, though the genus is among the most speciose within the family Characidae. A. leopoldi is no exception in that you'll rarely see it offered for sale but may find the occasional specimen mixed among other species in shipments of wild fishes from Peru.

Like most badids B. kyar is poorly documented in aquarium literature and has yet to find significant popularity in the hobby, though given its restricted natural distribution it is unlikely ever to be available in large numbers. The fish in our image is a specimen included in the only batch of this species known to have been exported to date. This species has a very slender body shape (which may be an adaptation to its habitat) and in this respect is similar to B. pyema. However B. kyar possesse...

This fish has yet to appear in the aquatic trade and only been exported in extremely limited numbers to date. Specimens collected from the Wahumiam River close to the settlement of Shella Bholaganj by Peter Cottle and Andrew Rao in 2006 were initially considered an undescribed species and referred to as B. sp.'Wahumiam River' or B. sp. 'terracotta', but later found to match B. tuivaiei in terms of morphology, meristics, etc. (S. van der Voort, pers. comm.).

A stylish-looking but rare barb in the hobby and unfortunately little information is available regarding its captive care. Forum member Andy Rushworth has kept a lone individal and told us it was a perfect aquarium inhabitant in terms of behaviour and maintenance. He also mentioned that the fish he had looked exactly like the specimen in our images but that he has seen at least one batch of what appeared to be a different species imported under the same na...

It remains unconfirmed as to whether this fish represents a colour form of B. xanthellus or not since its DATZ code number of L081 is not referred to in the description paper whereas all other codes for 'gold nugget' plecos, i.e., L018, L085, L177 plus the 'Das Aquarium' code LDA060 are mentioned. In addition, one of the specimens in our images was apparently collected at São Félix do Xingu which is significantl...

This species is included in the B. pugnax complex of closely-related species within the genus, an assemblage of which members are notoriously difficult to tell apart from one another, but which can be characterised collectively by the following set of shared characters: relatively large head measuring 28-40% SL; live colouration usually brown with green or blue iridescent spots; male with similarly-coloured scales on opercle, sometimes extending to abdomen; juveniles and females usually brown with two central body stripes and a dark marking on the caudal peduncle; anal-fin in mature specimens pointed and often elongated; caudal-fin lanceolate.

The majority of records pertain to an area sandwiched between the lower Arut and Kumai rivers, south of the towns of Pangkalan Bun and Kumai in Kalimantan Tengah (Central Kalimantan) province, Borneo, Indonesia. Addditional collections have taken place in the Sampit river basin to the east, and several hundred kilometres further north in Sukadana district Kalimantan Barat (West Kalimantan) province. Type locality is 'Indonesia: Borneo: Kalimantan Tengah: Arut basin: Pankalanbun', with the specimens having been obtained from the aquarium trade.

Appears endemic to southern Borneo. The type specimens were collected from the Jelai Bila river basin at Nataik Sedawak, presumably a settlement of some kind, near the town of Sukamara in the Indonesian province of Kalimantan Tengah (Central Kalimantan). Its range extends westwards from the Jelai Bila watershed whereas that of the congener B. brigittae, with which it may occur sympatrically there (see 'Notes'), extends east.

The physical appearance of B. almorhae sensu stricto is something of a mystery. No pictures of live specimens appear in any scientific publications we've read and we've been unable to find a certified image of one anywhere meaning it's possibly never been seen in the aquarium trade. Instead the most commonly available members of the nominal species grouping seem to be B. lohachata, B. sp. 'Kosi' and B. sp. 'Teesta' (see individual notes below), plus the assorted hybrids that have appeared since the turn of the century (Grant, 2007).

Adult patterning of the different geographical forms can vary considerably though young specimens all possess 5 solid dark bars on each flank and are often confused with those species exhibiting a similar juvenile pattern, particularly B. kubotai. However the horizontal dark bars on the flanks in B. kubotai typically split at quite a young age and/or develop horizontally-orientated 'peaks' whereas those in B. histrionica remain solid for longer and the central bar usually has a pale spot at the top so forms a 'y' shape.

Appears to be endemic to headwaters of the Salween River basin around the border between Myanmar and Thailand. The type specimens were collected from the Megathat Chaung (Megathat stream) in the upper Ataran (known as the Kasat in Thai) River basin, Kayin/Karen State, Myanmar and another population was later discovered in the Hanthayaw River (Suriya in Thai), Tak Province, Thailand.

Both species also possesses a broader dark midlateral stripe on the body which tends to be more well-defined in B. lateristriga than in B. maculata. Colour pattern in B. maculata varies considerably with some specimens noticeably paler than others, for example, and the the broad midlateral stripe usually less intense in such individuals. This does not app...

Endemic to the Rakhine Yoma/Arakan mountains in Rakhine state, western Myanmar; this range forms a natural barrier which cuts the state off from the remainder of the country. It was originally collected from a handful of streams and rivers of the western, interior, slopes of which the type specimens originated from the Kananmae Chaung, a coastal rivulet draining into the Bay of Bengal (Kullander and Fa...

In the Amazon region it is only specimens larger than around 160 cm and werighing in excess of 50 kg that are referred to as 'Piraíba' with the name 'filhote' normally applied to smaller individuals. Other vernacular names include 'Salton catfish', 'Kumakuma'; and 'tiger antenna catfish'; with members of the genus often referred to collectively as 'goliath catfishes'.

This species can look quite stunning when cared for properly. It can sometimes be a little delicate when initially imported, as it has very large scales which tend to fall off during transport. Once acclimatised, it usually proves fairly hardy. There are reports of aquarium specimens surviving for over fifteen years in well-maintained conditions....

This species was considered a synonym of Channa melasoma for a number of years prior to its revalidation by Ng. et al. (1996). Specimens larger than around 120 mm SL can be distinguished by possession of a black spot in the centre of numerous body scales and a barred caudal-fin pattern, characters which are missing in both C. melasoma and the similar-looking C. cyanospilos.

This species can be told apart from the similar-looking congener C. baramensis (once considered synonymous with C. melasoma) by absence (vs. presence) of a black spot in the centre of numerous body scales and absence (vs. presence in specimens larger than 120 mm SL) of a barred caudal-fin pattern.