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Aqualife (1) Ivan Sazima (1)

Mees (1974) assigned this species to Tatia but Ferraris (2007) reverted it back to the original genera of Centromochlus. Aquarium Care: As of the Tatia species you can give them small pipes, and they do seem to like to hide in the crevices of bogwood as well. They appear to be happier if they can jam themselves in with the use of their pectoral fins. Community tanks are fine for this species but don't expect to see them too often. Sexual Differences: The sexes can be distinguished best by the shape of the maxillary barbels, these barbels are curved in males, straight in females. 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 inserted in to their hideaway, catfish tablets, white worm (sparingly) and prawns and shrimp. They do like their food and you can see them shooting out of their hideouts and swimming in a frenzied manner to try and take all for themselves, especially when you feed them their favourite food, frozen bloodworm. Etymology: The genus name Centromochlus: kentron, thorn or spine; mochlus, lever or crowbar, presumably referring to strongly serrated dorsal-fin spine. The specific name existimatus: considered, allusion not explained, perhaps reflecting Mees’ statement: “I have considered the possibility that the differences between C. heckelii and C. existimatus are not specific but sexual, a possibility that appears to be strengthened by the fact that the two have so often been collected together (as evidenced by mixed samples in collection)”. Remarks: One of the features in the thumbnail image's which is obvious is the large eyes and the also the large pectoral fins which are not conspicuous in the first image but noticable in the second thumbnail. The spines of the pectoral fins should be handled with care as one can become stung by them and the spines also tend to tangle up in the meshs of a net when it is necessary to catch the fish.

None

None

Auchenipteridae

South America: Amazon River basin. Type locality: Harbour of Manaos [Brazil].

9.0cm (3½ins)

26-28°c (79-83°f.)

6.5-7.5.

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. 2021. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 06/2021 ).
Soares-Porto, L.M., 1998. Monophyly and interrelationships of the Centromochlinae (Siluriformes: Auchenipteridae). p. 331-350. In L.R. Malabarba, R.E. Reis, R.P. Vari, Z.M.S. Lucena and C.A.S. Lucena (eds.) Phylogeny and classification of neotropical fishes. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS.
The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.