Known with certainty from tributaries of the middle Río Orinoco between the city of Puerto Ayacucho, Amazonas state, Venezuela and the lower Río Meta, Colombia.

It may have a wider distribution within the Meta system since some reports suggest it to occur around Villavicencia, Colombia, some 600 km upriver.

This species is almost unheard of in the aquarium trade though may occasionally be exported among shipments of wild fishes from Sumatra.

It’s closely-related to K. bichirris but is told apart by presence (vs. absence) of a prominent, dark lateral stripe on each flank.

Kryptopterus species are found only in Southeast Asia and the genus has been consi…

Type locality is ‘Palembang, Sumatra, Indonesia’, but this species is widely-distributed throughout much of Southeast Asia including major river systems in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia plus the Greater Sunda Islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Java.

It’s been extensively recorded from the Mekong, Cha…

This species is likely to be traded for aquaria but probably misidentified as the very similar-looking K. cyrptopterus with which wild populations were formerly considered conspecific.

These two are closely-related and can be distinguished from congeners by the dorsal profile lacking a nuchal concavity (vs. possessing a nuchal concavity) and possessing short maxillary barbels (extending to the pectoral-fin base vs. ext…

Generally peaceful though it may predate on smaller fishes and is somewhat timid so does not compete well with much larger, robust or otherwise boisterous species.

Peaceful, comparably-sized cyprinids, loaches and other catfishes perhaps constitute the best options but be sure to research your choices thoroughly prior to purchase.

This species is now considered endemic to Java but has been confused with the congeners H. gracilis (from eastern Peninsular Malaysia), H. velox (Sumatra) and H. bongan (Borneo) in the past, while the population formerly considered to inhabit northwestern Peninsular Malaysia has been described as H. divaricatus (Ng and Kottelat, 2013).

This species cannot be considered a suitable home aquarium‚ subject given its eventual size plus the fact it can live for‚ several decades.

It can be told apart from most oth…

This species has been recorded from the Zhujiang (Pearl River), Changjiang (Yangtze River) and Qiantang Jiang in central and southern China.

Type locality is ‘Chang Jiang, China’, referring to the Yangtze.

It’s been adversely affected by dam construction and pollution across certain parts of its range and may be locally extirpated in some cases.