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Mystus gulio (Hamilton, 1822)

Image contributors to this species:

Steven Grant (1) Robin Warne (3) Johnny Jensen's Photographic Library (1) Hayath (2) Abhisek Mishra (1)

ScotCat Sources:

Other Sources:

Relevant Information:

Habitat: Originally described from “Higher parts of Gangetic estuaries”, this species lives in fresh and brackish waters. In freshwater, adults occur mainly in larger water bodies (rivers and streams) with mud or clay substrates, and rarely found in smaller streams. Form schools of 10 to 25 individuals. Colouration: Sometimes when young it can exhibit pale stripes along the body. It is easily differentiated from the other species by the combination of its green to greyish colour and small adipose fin. Diurnal. Reproduction: Oviparous, distinct pairing possibly like other members of the same family. Etymology: The genus name Mystus: "Mystax" meaning whiskered (hair on the upper lip) Mystus was first used by Belon in 1553 to describe all fish with whiskers. The specific name gulio: Latinisation of Guli, local Bengali name for this species in India.

Common Name:

None

Synonyms:

Pseudobagrus gulio, Bagrus gulio, Pimelodus gulio, Macrones gulio, Aspidobagrus gulio, Bagrus albilabrus

Family:

Bagridae

Distribution:

Asia: Estuaries and lower portions of rivers of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Java. Type locality: Higher parts of the Gangetic estuaries, where the water is not very salty.

Size:

40.0cm. (16ins)

Temp:

21-27°C (69-81°F)

p.H.

6.5-8.0.

IUCN Red List

Mystus gulio despite being targeted in artisan fisheries, being sometimes harvested as an ornamental fish and demonstrated population declines in parts of its range, the level of exploitation is not deemed high enough to be a threat to long-term survival of this species, which is still considered relatively abundant. Other threats include pollution and it is known to be utilised in aquaculture, but more information into the effects and scales of these threats is required. This species is therefore assessed as Least Concern. However, it should be noted that there are taxonomic problems surrounding the identity of this species, and it is likely that what is currently classified as Mystus gulio, may consist of several species with more geographically circumscribed distributions. Should this be the case, it may be necessary to reassess this species in the near future, (IUCN 2019).

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 (11/2010).
Grant, Steven. ScotCat Article: The striped catfishes of the genus Mystus Scopoli, 1777 (Siluriformes: Bagridae).
Ng, H.H., de Alwis Goonatilake, S., Fernado, M. & Kotagama, O. 2019. Mystus gulio. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019.
Pethiyagoda, R., 1991. Freshwater fishes of Sri Lanka. The Wildlife Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka, Colombo. 362 p.
The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.

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

Mystus gulio
Specimen with one eye

Mystus gulio

Mystus gulio

Mystus gulio
Odisha, India

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