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Fishes of Mainland Southeast Asia (2) Florida Museum (2)

Description: Dorsal spines (total): 1; Dorsal soft rays (total): 7; Anal soft rays: 12 - 14; Vertebrae: 43 - 44. Can be differentiated from its congeners by a unique combination of the following characters: adipose fin short (length of adipose-fin base 11.3-12.7% SL; 1.72-2.20 times maximum adipose height) with a steep anterior margin (length of adipose-fin base and a distinct black spot on the posterior half); head width 20.6-23.4% SL; dorsal to adipose distance 12.7-16.2% SL; and absence of filamentous extensions on the first three dorsal-fin rays in adults. Feeds on exogenous insects, aquatic insect larvae, shrimps and other crustaceans, as well as fishes. Reproduction: In Cambodian Mekong, it moves into flooded forest to spawn and the young are first observed in August, with the adults returning to rivers in November and December. Etymology: The genus name Hemibagrus: Hemi- half; bagrus- from 'bagre', a South American name for a catfish, but is only used for African and Asian species. The specific name spilopterus: spilos, spot; pterus, fin, referring to black spot on adipose fin. Remarks: The name H. nemurus has been used for fishes throughout southeast Asia, including Indochina, Thailand and peninsular Malaysia. It is now restricted to a species distributed only in Java (Indonesia), while the populations from the Mekong, Chao Phraya and Mae Khlong drainages are H. spilopterus (Ng and Rainboth 1999), and populations form other parts of the Sundaic region refer to another species (H.H. Ng). The species was described from the Bassac River on the Vietnamese border at Kandal, Cambodia. Originally considered to be restricted to the lower Mekong drainage in Cambodia (Ng and Rainboth 1999), records of H. nemurus are now considered to pertain to H. spilopterus, and the species is known from the Mekong, Chao Phraya, and Mae Khlong drainages (H.H. Ng. 2011).

None

None

Bagridae

Asia: Known only from the lower Mekong drainage in Cambodia.

30.0cm (12ins)

21-28°C (69-83°F)

6.5-7.2.

Allen, D. 2012. Hemibagrus spilopterus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 07/2018 ).
Ng, H.H. and W.J. Rainboth, 1999. The bagrid catfish genus Hemibagrus (Teleostei: Siluriformes) in central Indochina with a new species from the Mekong River. Raffles Bull. Zool. 47(2):555-576.
The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.