SCOTCAT.COM  

Drake Shaw (1) Lucas Vieira/Rafael Oliveira (1)

Described from coastal drainages of northeastern Brazil (Pindaré to Parnaíba rivers). Description: diagnosed from congeners by the unique combination of: pale yellow to white stripe beginning above orbits, continuing midlaterally on body and onto middle rays of caudal fin; skin in axil of each midlateral thorn without concentration of pigment forming small dark spot, midlateral scutes shallow (depth of 10th scute 8.8-11.9% of SL), and midlateral scutes on caudal peduncle distinctly separated by strip of skin from middorsal and midventral caudal-peduncle plates. Three additional species of Platydoras are recognized as valid: P. armatulus (lower Orinoco, Amazon and Paraguay-Paraná drainages), P. costatus (coastal drainages of Suriname and French Guiana), and P. hancockii (upper Orinoco, Negro, Essequibo and Demerara drainages). The nominal species P. dentatus and P. helicophilus are tentatively treated as junior synonyms of P. costatus (Piorski et al 2008). Aquarium Care: This is a fairly easy catfish to keep as long as you can provide it with shelter such as pipes or cave work. It will even jam itself into the pipe with its pectoral spines and will be unremovable. Would need moving water and large stones to hide, replicating its natural habitat. Diet: Easy to feed on frozen food such as bloodworm, tablet and pellet foods. In youngsters it is better to feed at night after lights out, the older they get they will get bolder and come out at feeding time. Etymology: The specific name brachylecis: brachýs (Gr.), short; lekís (Gr.) or lékos dish, pot or pan (authors say plate or dish), referring to its relatively shallow midlateral scutes.

None

None

Doradidae

South America: Rio Mearim, Rio Pindaré, Rio Itapecuru and Rio Parnaíba basins in northeastern Brazil.

21.5cm. (8½ins)

25-30°C (77-87°F)

6.0-7.5.

Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 02/2018 ).
Piorski, N.M., J.C. Garavello, Arce H.M. and M.H. Sabaj Pérez, 2008. Platydoras brachylecis, a new species of thorny catfish (Siluriformes: Doradidae) from northeastern Brazil. Neotrop. Ichthyol. 6(3):481-494.
The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.
Vieira LO, Campos DS, Oliveira RF, South J, Coelho MS.P, Paiva MJ.S, Bragança PH.N, Guimarães EC, Katz AM, Brito PS, Santos JP, Ottoni FP (2023) Checklist of the fish fauna of the Munim River Basin, Maranhão, north-eastern Brazil. Biodiversity Data Journal 11: e98632.