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Paravandellia oxyptera Miranda Ribeiro, 1912

Image contributors to this species:

Freshwater Fish from Uruguay 2nd. edition (1) Ivan Sazima (1)

ScotCat Sources:

Other Sources:

Relevant Information:

Habitat: Inhabits rivers with sandy to muddy bottom. Diet: Found to exhibit parasitic traits. Forages both during the day and at night seeks the gill chambers of larger fishes, especially catfishes. Enters and leaves the gill chamber during the host's ventilating movements: feeds on blood drawn from the gill filaments and may stay in the gill chamber for 1-3 min; when gorged with blood, moves to the bottom and buries itself in the sand. A single large catfish tethered on the river bank may feed thousand of these parasitic catfish over a period of up to 6 hours. Large numbers of this fish may kill fishes tethered by fishermen. Sexual Differences: Two females, 1.8 cm TL, caught in January (wet season) had about 150 mature oocytes each, and one male 2.0 cm TL had well-developed testes. Etymology: The genus name of Paravandellia: para-, near, i.e., considered between Stegophilus and Vandellia (yet described as having the general appearance of the former). The specific name of oxyptera: oxy, sharp; ptera, fin, presumably referring to the large, falcate pectoral fins.

Common Name:

Pantanal parasitic catfish

Synonyms:

Branchioica bertoni, Pleurophysus hydrostaticus, Vandellia hematophaga, Parabranchioica teaguei

Family:

Trichomycteridae

Distribution:

South America: Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay River basins (Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay). Type locality: Caceres, margens do Rio Paraguay [Brazil].

Size:

3.0cm. (1¼ins)

Temp:

25-28°c (77-83°f.)

p.H.

6.0-7.0.

Reference:

Burgess, W.E., 1989. An atlas of freshwater and marine catfishes. A preliminary survey of the Siluriformes. T.F.H. Publications, Inc., Neptune City, New Jersey (USA). 784 p.
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. 2023. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 10/2023 ).
Machado, F.A. and I. Sazima, 1983. Comportamento alimentar do peixe hematófago Branchioica bertonii (Siluriformes, Trichomycteridae). Ciência e cultura 35(3):344-352.
The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.

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

Paravandellia oxyptera

Paravandellia oxyptera
On the gills of Pseudoplatystoma corruscans

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