A new species of the genus Trichomycterus is described from the rio Uruguai drainage, Rio Grande do Sol State, Brazil, with a single paratype from the rio Paranapanema basin, São Paulo State. Both rivers are tributaries within the rio Paraná watershed.

Trichomycterus perkos is named from the Greek ‘perkos’ (περκὸς), meaning ‘spotted or streaked with black marks’ in allusion to its colour pattern comprising dark stripes in smaller individuals and a combination of dark stripes and spots in larger specimens. Continue reading »

New study investigates evolutionary ages and convergence of freshwater elephantfishes and neotropical knifefishes…

Among teleosts some of the more bizarre-looking belong to the superfamily Mormyroidea (freshwater elephantfishes) and order Gymnotiformes (neotropical knifefishes), but both these groups are perhaps most notable for their shared ability to generate and receive weak electric fields used in communication and navigation. Continue reading »

Loach previously misidentified in the aquarium hobby given name.

Nonn Panitvong/Siamensis.org

The fish previously known as Acanthocobitis rubidipinnis in the aquarium hobby is officially described as A. pictilis in the journal Zootaxa this week. It’s native to the Mae Klong watershed in western Thailand and the Ataran River, an affluent of the upper Salween basin flowing into Myanmar from Kanchanaburi province, Thailand.

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Study reveals additional diversity in southwestern China.

Juvenile paratype of G. granosus © H. H. Ng

A paper investigating the identity of the catfish Glyptothorax zanaensis Wu, He & Chu 1981 is published in the latest issue of Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society. The species was previously considered the only representative of the genus occurring in the upper Salween and upper Mekong river basins of southwestern China, but the former synonym G. longinema Li 1984 is redescribed and revalidated and two new species raised in the new study.

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Parambassis bistigmata is a new species of the glass perch family Ambassidae so far known from the Ranga River, Arunachal Pradesh state, and the Umtrao River, Meghalaya state, northeastern India, both of which are tributaries within the Brahmaputra River watershed.

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Laubuca brahmaputraensis is a new species known only from the Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh. No specific type locality is provided in the paper other than ‘Brahmaputra River’, so the extent of its distribution is unclear, and live colouration is currently unknown.

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Colin Dunlop

© Colin Dunlop

Some snakeheads in the Channa genus are real giants and some like Channa micropeltes, C. argus or C. maruliodes can get to about a meter long. Many of the giant species are easy to get in the aquarium hobby but might not be so suitable unless you have an equally giant tank. Channa orientalis however, is a dwarf by comparison and has an average size of a more manageable 10 cm. Continue reading »

New article by Mike Wise discusses how paleogeological events shaped the distribution of this popular dwarf cichlid genus…

In nature Apistogramma species groups exhibit regional patterns of distribution

Apistogramma expert Mike Wise has recently published what can only be described as a monumental piece of work over on Tom Christoffersen’s excellent website tomc.no. The ‘article’ runs to almost 40 pages and comprises a detailed examination of South American paleogeography and its potential influence(s) on the subsequent distribution of the genus. Continue reading »

Rupert Collins

A recently published study in the open-access journal PLoS ONE documents the trade in a popular family of fishes—the cyprinids—and reveals new information about some of the hobby’s favourite species.

Puntius filamentosus (A) and P. assimilis (B) are not easy to tell apart. © Rupert Coliins

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