Brachyplatystoma juruense (BOULENGER, 1898)

Gold Zebra Catfish

Classification

Order: Siluriformes Family: Pimelodidae

Distribution

Described from the rio Juruá, northwestern Brazil but has a much wider distribution in the middle Amazon and Orinoco basins including many tributary drainages.

Habitat

Mostly inhabits larger, deeper river channels including stretches of whitewater rapids.

Maximum Standard Length

At least 600 mm.

Aquarium SizeTop ↑

This species is suitable only for public aquaria plus a very small minority of private aquarists and as such we offer no recommended aquarium size.

Maintenance

The choice of décor is as much down to personal preference as anything else though a carefully-aquascaped, planted set-up is obviously out of the question. A sandy substrate with some large chunks of driftwood, or a completely bare arrangement are perhaps the most-favoured options in privately-owned aquaria, but provided water quality is maintained and lighting not too bright this species is relatively unfussy. An enormous, reliable filter system and rigorous maintenance regime should be considered mandatory.

Water Conditions

Temperature: 22 – 27 °C

pH: 6.0 – 7.5

Hardness: 18 – 215 ppm

Diet

Almost entirely piscivorous preying on loricariids and other bottom-dwelling fishes in nature but most specimens readily adapt to dead alternatives such as prawn/shrimp, mussel, squid, whitebait, strips of larger white fish, etc., in aquaria. Adults require just a single meal per week at most.

Behaviour and CompatibilityTop ↑

Only keep with species large enough to avoid predation.

Sexual Dimorphism

Unknown.

Reproduction

Has never been bred in captivity. In nature the congeners B. vaillantii and B. rousseauxii are known to undertake extensive, seasonal, upstream migrations which relate directly to the reproductive cycle.

NotesTop ↑

This species is sometimes confused with B. tigrinum, especially when juvenile, but can be told apart quite easily by it’s much less-defined colour pattern, relatively deeper body shape and shorter barbels. Some individuals are more colourful than others and typically traded as B. juruense ‘flash’ or ‘flash zebra’, but its unclear if these differences are geographically-influenced or not, and other trade names included ‘false zebra shovelnose’ and ‘false tigrinus’.

It can be distinguished from congeners by the following external characters: colour pattern in adults comprising broad dark vertical, oblique or branching bands, sometimes broken into spots, base body colour pale yellowish, caudal fin blotched or barred; colour pattern in juveniles comprising a mid-lateral row of spots which expand to form adult pattern; caudal-fin in adults moderately-forked with broad, more-or-less evenly-sized lobes, filaments present in adults; eye diameter fits more than 10 times in length of snout; maxillary barbels in adults reaching to or a little beyond dorsal-fin base; caudal peduncle compressed with greater depth than width; origin of adipose-fin anterior to origin of anal-fin; base length of adipos-fin approximately 1.3 times that of anal-fin; height of adipose-fin approximately three times its length; opercle triangular; 17-19 anal-fin rays.

Brachyplatystoma spp. are distinguished from all other catfishes by two synapomorphies. The first comprises several morphological characters relating to the skull, specifically that the mandibular suspensorium (that which connects the lower jaw bone to the skull) is greatly expanded mediodorsally to form a large plate approaching the parasphenoid bone, with the hyomandibula and metapterygoid similarly enlarged.

The second is the presence of an elongate filament formed from a single, unbranched simple ray on both caudal fin lobes in juveniles and subadults. These become shorter or are lost in adult specimens of B. vaillantii, B. filamentosum, B. rousseauxii, and B. capapretum but retained in B. juruense, B. platynemum and B. tigrinum.

References

1. Ferraris, C. J., Jr., 2007 - Zootaxa 1418: 1-628
   Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types.
2. Lundberg, J. G. and A. Akama, 2005 - Copeia 2005(3): 492-516
   Brachyplatystoma capapretum: a new species of goliath catfish from the Amazon basin, with a reclassification of allied catfishes.
3. M. Petrere Jr., R. B. Barthem, E. A. Córdoba and B. Corrales Gómez, 2004 - Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 14: 403-414
   Review of the large catfish fisheries in the upper Amazon and the stock depletion of piraíba (Brachyplatystoma filamentosum Lichtenstein).