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Rita sacerdotum Anderson, 1879

Image contributors to this species:

Nonn Panitvong (2) Enrico Richter (1) Allan James (1) Johnny Jensen's Photographic Library (3) Jian Ruilong (1)

ScotCat Sources:

Other Sources:

Relevant Information:

Grows too large for aquarium keeping in the adult stage. Habitat: Large species which occurs in mainstream rivers. Diet: Feeds on benthic organisms and possibly fishes. Etymology: The specific name sacerdotum: priests, being a sacred fish under royal protection, “daily fed by the priests who reside on the small rocky islet” of Thingadaw, on the Irrawaddy River of Myanmar. Remarks: Some online searches still have this species as in the Bagridae family.

Common Name:

Salween rita

Synonyms:

None

Family:

Bagridae

Distribution:

Asia: Thailand; Salween basin, Myanmar; Tennasserim. Type locality: Irrawaddy River at location of pagoda of Thingadow, 3rd Defile of Irrawaddy River, Burma.

Size:

180.0cm (6ft)

Temp:

22-26°C (71-79°F)

p.H.

6.5-7.0.

IUCN Red List

Although there is no information on the global population and its trends for this species, current evidence indicats that it is still relatively widespread and abundant. Despite being targeted in artisanal fisheries, the level of exploitation is not deemed high enough to be a threat to long-term survival of this species. Rita sacerdotum is therefore assessed as Least Concern, but needs to be updated, (IUCN 2010).

Reference:

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. 2009. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (05/2009).
Ng, H.H. 2010. Rita sacerdotum. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010.
The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.

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

Rita sacerdotum

Rita sacerdotum

Rita sacerdotum
Head view

Rita sacerdotum
Albino

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