Known
as Airsac catfishes they used to belong to the
Clariidae family before being put into there
own family, Heteropneustidae Hora, 1936.
At
the time of writing (2021) there are only four
species in this family all with the genus name
of Heteropneustes. H. fossillis
(Bloch, 1794), H.
kemratensis
(Fowler, 1937), H. longipectoralis
Rema Devi & Raghunathan, 1999 and H.
nani Hossain, Sarker, Sharifuzzaman &
Chowdhury, 2013. H. microps has proven
to be a synonym of H. fossillis.
They are known as Asian
Stinging Catfishes due to concerns that poison
that can emanate from a gland on the pectoral
fin spine and has been known to be fatal to
some humans. They do very well in a larger aquarium,
and you can either keep it alone with other
inhabitants that are too big for its mouth (large
Barbs, Cichlids etc.) or in a group situation
if you would like the challenge of breeding
them.
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