Phractura
ansorgii Boulenger,
1901
|
hese catfish commonly known as 'African Whiptails'
tends to ratify the theory that the two great continents of the
America's and Africa where at one time, one great mass of land as
they look on first glance to be superficially like South American
Whiptails, such as from the Rineloricaria/Hemiloricaria
genus.
Of course a look at the long barbels (3 pairs) and the long nose
gives the game away ( plus no sucker mouth) but for unsuspecting
aquarists coming into the catfish side of the hobby for the first
time, it is easy to see why there would be confusion.
The one strange thing that captivated me was the role reversal of
the sexes as the female is actually the most striking of the pair
( see picture above) even though they are not the most colourful
of fish. The bars or bands on her body get a quite dark brown texture
when in good condition. The males have no bars at all ( picture
below) and are quite a pale looking fish even when its water conditions
are met. Its when they get into their breeding attire that the males
come into their own as they take on a reddish colour to the whole
of their body.
They swim in a most curious manner just like a sidewinder snake
that you see on one of these T.V. wildlife documentories, moving
across the sand, and they find their food this way.
Origin of dorsal fin in front of base of
ventral fins; no spine preceeding pectoral or adipose fins. Slender
elongate body. Barbels, short, thick and papillose not reaching
the pectoral fin origin.
Females with dark brown bars and males without this feature taking
on a red lustre to their body when in breeding condition.
These catfish inhabit fast flowing waters and spend a lot of their
time clinging to aquatic leaves and if you provide long stemmed
plants, such as Vallisneria for instance, you will see this habit.
To keep this species and other members of this African hillstream
family you will have to provide a well oxygenated planted aquarium
and keep up your water changes as they are not as hardy as the South
American equivalents. What I found to my disappointment is they
do not like a low p.H. as I had let a tank, which I had placed 2
pairs of this species, drop below 6 and I lost one pair before I
realised my predicament, and over the next 48 hrs gradually raised
the p.H.to a more respectable 7 which suited them just fine.
A report on the breeding of this species is documented in the Baench
Aquarium Atlas 3 and was carried out by Dr. Walter Foersch as far
back as the late 50's. Chirping noises could be heard in the aquarium.
The male curved his body like a U over the female and this position
was maintained for several seconds. The female produced 100 eggs
that had a thick gelatinous cuticle and were similar in appearance
to amphibian eggs. The fry hatched after 2-3 days and accepted food
after an additional 5-6 days. He lost many of the young as he couldn't
determine what the fry were eating but managed to raise the rest
which resembled newt larvae when they were 12 mm in length.
It has been documented that they will eat algae but I found that
they were not interested in it and preferred frozen bloodworm which
they eat as if it was going out of style. They will also take tablet
food and other worm foods such as grindle and white worm. You can
try vegetable foods such as corgette (zucchini) and also lettuce
and monitor to see if they do eat them.
| Etymology |
Phractura:
Protected tail.
ansorgii:
In
honour of Dr. W.J. Ansorge, the English collector.
|
| References |
Baench, Aquarium Atlas 3
Burgess, Dr.Warren E.;
An Atlas of Freshwater and Marine Catfishes 1989.
Aqualog
Verlag ©
|
|
|
| Synonyms:
|
| Phractura ansorgei, Phractura intermedia. |
| Common
Name: |
| African Whiptailed Catfish |
| Family: |
| Amphiliidae |
| Subfamily: |
| Doumeinae |
| Distribution: |
Nigeria.
Central Dem Rep.Congo. |
| Size: |
| 9cm. (3¾ins) |
| Temp: |
| 20-24°C
(67-75°F) |
| pH.: |
| 6.5 - 7.2 |
| Donation: |
If you found this page helpful
you can help keep ScotCat running by making a small donation,
Thanks.
|
|
|
|
