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Mark Henry Sabaj (1)

Mees (1974) assigned this species to Tatia but Ferraris (2007) reverted it back to the original genera of Centromochlus. Description: This species is distinguished from Centromochlinae by having a vermiculated colour pattern on the dorsum (vs. dorsum uniform in all Centromochlinae, except Tatia brunnea, T. dunni, and T. meridionalis). It is distinguished from these three aforementioned species by having the eye ventrolaterally displaced on head in a way that almost the entire eye is visible in ventral view (vs. eye displaced dorsolaterally and not visible in ventral view). It shares derived characters with other Centromochlus species such as the ventrolateral position of eye socket, a sphenotic notched for the exit of infraorbital canal, and with posterior serrations along pectoral-fin spine numerou. It is distinguished from its congeners by having the pectoral-fin spine with dark bars, alternating with light bars (vs. pectoral-fin spine with light and uniform color); further differs except C. carolae by the ventral surface of head moderate to largely pigmented (vs. ventral surface of head unpigmented in C. heckelii, C. existimatus, C. orca, C. musaicus, C. schultzi or with few scattered dark chromatophores in C. macracanthus and C. melanoleucus); differs from C. carolae by the presence of vermiculated colour pattern or scattered chromatophores on lateral surface of the body that extends to the caudal peduncle (vs. lateral surface of the body with distinct demarcation between dark and light areas continuous posteriorly onto the caudal peduncle whereas the dark pigmentation extends nearly to the ventral midline); differs from C. schultzi by lacking dark large and rounded blotches over a pale background on head and trunk (vs. present; and by the smaller length of the dorsal-fin spine 18.1-27.1% of SL (vs. more than 27% of SL in C. macracanthus, C. heckelii, C. existimatus), and pectoral-fin spine 24.2-32.2% of SL (vs. more than 33% of SL in C. macracanthus, C. heckelii, C. existimatus). Aquarium Care: Keeping this species is not too much of a problem as long as the water is kept clean and not too alkaline with a p.H. of between 6.0 and 7.0. They do like a planted aquarium where they like to hide during the day. Also provide pipework for this genera for a choice of hiding places. Sexual Differences: The sexes can be distinguished best by the shape of the maxillary barbels, these barbels are curved in males, straight in females. Mature males also have a modified anal fin, similar to that of other species in this family. Diet: In its native habitat they feed on small invertebrates and crustaceans and in the aquarium they will eat anything given such as frozen bloodworm, catfish tablets, white worm (sparingly), prawns and shrimp. Etymology: The genus name Centromochlus: kentron, thorn or spine; mochlus, lever or crowbar, presumably referring to strongly serrated dorsal-fin spine. The specific name akwe: Named for the Akwê (Xerente self-denomination) indigenous people who previously inhabited the middle and upper Tocantins River basin (Tocantins, Brazil), where this catfish occurs (today the Akwê-Xerente are restricted to the city of Tocantínia, north of Palmas City).

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Auchenipteridae

South America: Tocantins-Araguaia River basin, Brazil.

7.5cm (3ins)

26-28°c (79-83°f.)

6.0-7.0.

Coelho, F.L., C.C Chamon and L.M. Sarmento-Soares, 2021. A new species of driftwood catfish Centromochlus Kner, 1858 (Siluriformes, Auchenipteridae, Centromochlinae) from Tocantins-Araguaia River drainage. Zootaxa 4950(1):149-165.
Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2024. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 08/2024 ).
The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.