Aquarium Care:Will need a good water flow in the aquarium with
a sand substrate and plenty of hiding places. The
Chaetostoma species are not the easiest to
maintain as the mountain stream species will need
a water current to provide oxygen-rich water. The
species that are exported usually originate from warmer
waters so are a bit easier to keep than the mountain
stream variety. Diet: Great algae
eater, but you will have to subsidise this food with
algae wafers and vegetable foods such as cucumber,
zucchini and lettuce. Will also except tablet and
worm foods. Sexual Differences: Males
have better colour, a broader head and lips and adult
males possess longer ventral fins than the females.
Common
Name:
Tachira Chaetostoma
Synonyms:
Chaetostoma tachiraensis
Family:
Loricariidae
Distribution:
South America:
Catatumbo river basin in the Lake Maracaibo drainage
(up to altitudes between 1,000 and 2,000 m above sea
level), Colombia and Venezuela. Type locality:
Río Táchira, 7 km. north of San Antonio,
Estado de Táchira, Venezuela; the Río
Táchira is a tributary of the Río Zulia,
Catatumbo system, Maracaibo basin.
Size:
8.5cm. (3¼ins)
Temp:
23-27°c (73-80°f.)
p.H.
6.0-7.5.
Reference:
Ferraris, C.J. Jr.,
2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes:
Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary
types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628. Fisch-Muller, S., 2003. Loricariidae-Ancistrinae
(Armored catfishes). p. 373-400. In R.E. Reis, S.O.
Kullander and C.J. Ferraris, Jr. (eds.) Checklist
of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America.
Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, Brasil. Froese, R. and D. Pauly.
Editors. 2016. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic
publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 10/2016 ).
Seidel, I. 2008. Back to Nature guide
to L-catfishes, Ettlingen, Germany 208 p.
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