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Neosilurus mollespiculum Allen & Feinberg, 1998

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Relevant Information:

Habitat: Inhabits rocky pools in main river channels and larger creeks. Colouration: Dark grey to yellowish grey brown overall; juveniles are usually darker than adults. Aquarium Care: Better suited to larger tanks of 5ft (150cm) or over with rocks and plants provided for cover. This is one of the larger species in this genera. Reproduction: Collection of specimens with ripe and recently spent gonads in November suggests that breeding occurs at the commencement of the wet season. Diet: Omnivorous. Stomach contents of fish less than 10cm SL were mainly insects and their larvae, primarily chironomid larvae, ephemeropterans, and trichopterans; small amounts of odonates, unidentified dipterans, ostracods, and filamentous algae. Fish larger than 10cm mainly ingested trichopterans, ostracods, and chironomids with some amounts of dipterans, odonates, aquatic coleopterans, corixids, Macrobrachium, bivalves, filamentous algae, and detritus. Etymology: mollespiculum: Named for its soft, flexible dorsal spine. Remarks: Closely resembles N. pseudospinosus, the only other Australian plotosid which lacks rigid dorsal and pectoral spines, but that species has longer nasal barbels. Listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2019) because the Extent of Occurrence is around 9,000 km2, the Area of Occupancy is estimated to be less than 100 km2, it is known from only one location when considering the threat of invasive species, and there is an observed decline in the number of mature individuals possibly due to introduced species.

Common Name:

Soft-spined Catfish

Synonyms:

None

Family:

Plotosidae

Distribution:

Oceania: Carson, Drysdale, Katherine, Fergusson, and Burdekin Rivers, northern Australia. Type locality: Running River, Burdekin River system, Queensland, ca. 19º07'S, 145º50'E, Australia.

Size:

44.0cm. (17½ins)

Temp:

22-28°C (71-83°F)

p.H.

6.0-8.0.

Reference:

Allen, G.R., S.H. Midgley and M. Allen, 2002. Field guide to the freshwater fishes of Australia. Western Australian Museum, Perth, Western Australia. 394 p.
Allen, G.R. and M.N. Feinberg, 1998. Descriptions of a new genus and four new species of freshwater catfishes (Plotosidae) from Australia. aqua, J. Ichthyol. Aquat. Biol. 3(1):9-18.
Ebner, B., Brooks, S. & Kennard, M. 2019. Neosilurus mollespiculum. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019.
Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2020. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version.

Family: Plotosidae Back to Ident-A-Cat Click on Thumbnails

Neosilurus mollespiculum

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