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Mark Henry Sabaj (1) Thorke A.S Østergaard (1) Scott Smith (1) Nathan Lujan (2)

Mees (1974) assigned this species to Tatia but Ferraris (2007) reverted it back to the original genera of Centromochlus. Aquarium Care: Jeremy Basch of AmazonTropics.com an expert on these catfishes states that unfortunately this species constantly swims in the aquarium and seems to be unable to detect the sides of the tank. It's not really a good aquarium candidate as a result. One might see better results in a tank with a constant stream of water that goes across the tank. This would require a fairly large pump or many jet lifters. This species never goes and hides, they literally swim 99% of the time. I'll occasionally see them resting on the ground but it's uncommon (Basch, Jeremy 2021). Sexual Differences: The sexes can be distinguished best by the shape of the maxillary barbels, these barbels are curved in males, straight in females. Diet: In its native habitat they feed on small invertebrates and crustaceans and in the aquarium they will eat anything given such as frozen bloodworm, catfish tablets, white worm (sparingly), prawns and shrimp. Etymology: The genus name Centromochlus: kentron, thorn or spine; mochlus, lever or crowbar, presumably referring to strongly serrated dorsal-fin spine. The specific name heckelii: in honour of Johann Jakob Heckel (1790-1857), curator of fishes, Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. Remarks: Two features in the fish are very obvious, the large eyes and the also the large pectoral fins which are always spread. The spines of the pectoral fins should be handled with care as one can become stung by them and the spines also tend to tangle up in the meshs of a net when it is necessary to catch the fish.

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Auchenipterus heckelii, Centromochlus steindachneri

Auchenipteridae

South America: Amazon and Orinoco River basins. Type locality: Marañon River, upper Amazon and Napo Rivers.

14.0cm (5½ins)

26-28°c (79-83°f.)

6.5-7.5.

Basch, Jeremy. AmazonTropics.com pers. comm. 2021.
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. 2019. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 08/2019 ).
Soares-Porto, L.M., 1998. Monophyly and interrelationships of the Centromochlinae (Siluriformes: Auchenipteridae). p. 331-350. In L.R. Malabarba, R.E. Reis, R.P. Vari, Z.M.S. Lucena and C.A.S. Lucena (eds.) Phylogeny and classification of neotropical fishes. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS.
www.aquariumglaser.de (Frank Schäfer).