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Steven Grant (1) Chris Ralph (1) Jeff Wood (4) Adrian Taylor (5) Andrew Rao (1)

Habitat: Occurs mainly in hill streams and muddy parts of rivers overgrown with vegetation. In Ferraris 2007, Erithistes has been moved back to its original placement in the Sisoridae family which had been moved there by de Pinna in 1996, along with Conta, Erethistoides, Hara and Pseudolaguvia. Aquarium Care: A tank with a sandy bottom and rounded stones and pebbles with a good water flow as befits an asian hillstream setup. Good water quality is a must for this family. Keep the water temperature on the cool side of a tropical aquarium. Tank mates such as the zebra danio (Brachydanio rerio) and asian fish of the same small size will make good tankmates. Diet: Prefers live foods such as bloodworm, grindle worm and daphnia. Etymology: Erithistes, Etymology not explained, presumably erethizon, porcupine and–istes, adjectival suffix, i.e., porcupine-like, referring to strong and serrated dorsal and pectoral-fin spines. The species epithet pusillus meaning very small, presumably referring to size (4cm S.L.).

Moth Catfish

Erethistes hara

Sisoridae

Asia: India, Ganges River basin, Assam. Type locality: Assam.

4.0cm. (1¾ins)

22-24°C (71-75°F)

6.0-7.5.

Adrian Taylor: pers.comm.
Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
Talwar, P.K. and A.G. Jhingran, 1991. Inland fishes of India and adjacent countries. Volume 2. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, i-xxii + 543-1158, 1 pl.
The ETYFish Project. Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.
Thomson A.W. & Page L.M. 2006. Genera of the Asian Catfish Families Sisoridae and Erethistidae (Teleostei: Siluriformes) Zootaxa 1345: 1–96.