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FACTSHEETS: July 2021 - no. 301

Centromochlus heckelii (De Filippi, 1853)

his month (July 2021) we have a collaboration with the owner of AmazonTropics.com, fish explorer and Auchenipteridae expert, Jeremy Basch. We welcome his input on the former Tatia species Centromochlus heckelii and the difficulties of keeping them in the home aquarium. Mees in 1974 assigned this species to Tatia but Ferraris in 2007 reverted it back to the original genera of Centromochlus.

Centromochlus heckelii

Centromochlus heckelii

Two features in both images 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 mesh's of a net when it is necessary to catch the fish. In its natural habitat they are more active at dusk, feeding mainly on insects and small crustaceans. They stay sheltered in logs or crevices in rocks during daytime, sometimes in small groups.

Centromochlus heckelii

Centromochlus heckelii

The family Auchenipteridae consists of 26 genera and 126 species (Fricke et al., 2020) divided into two subfamilies (Centromochlinae and Auchenipterinae), which present some historical internal phylogenetic incongruities (Ferraris, 1996; Soares-Porto, 1998). This family gathers small to medium size fishes, with suborbital groove to lodge maxillary bone and anal fin of male with intromittent organ (Calegari et al., 2019).

Auchenipterids are inseminating fishes, a distinctive characteristic also present in Astroblepidae and Scoloplacidae (Spadella et al., 2006; 2012). Moreover, they also present internal insemination and a remarkable sexual dimorphism related to anal fin modification and other parts of the body, such as dorsal and pelvic fins, and maxillary barbels (Birindelli, 2014).

Between the two subfamilies, Auchenipterinae has the highest species richness, embracing 17 genera with 77 species (Fricke et al., 2020), and Centromochlinae was composed of eight genera and 49 species (Fricke , 2020). In the recent phylogenetic study by Calegari et al. (2019), Centromochlus Kner, 1858 was restricted to include only Centromochlus heckelii (De Philippi, 1853) and Centromochlus existimatus Mees, 1974, both widely distributed species in the Orinoco and Amazon basins (Soares-Porto, 1998; Ferraris, 2003, 2007; Akama, Sarmento-Soares, 2007). Centromochlinae is a well-supported clade, and is diagnosed primarily by traits associated to inseminating reproductive system (Soares-Porto, 1998; Birindelli, 2014; Calegari., 2019).

Map of the Amazon River drainage basin with the Marañón River highlighted.

Distrbution: Map of the Amazon River drainage basin with the Marañón River highlighted. Type locality: Marañon River, upper Amazon and Napo Rivers.

The Marañón River (Spanish: Río Marañón, IPA: ['ri.o maa'on]) is the principal or mainstem source of the Amazon River, arising about 160 km to the northeast of Lima, Peru, and flowing through a deeply eroded Andean valley in a northwesterly direction, along the eastern base of the Cordillera of the Andes, as far as 5° 36' southern latitude; from where it makes a great bend to the northeast, and cuts through the jungle Andes, until at the Pongo de Manseriche it flows into the flat Amazon basin. Although historically, the term "Marañon River" often was applied to the river all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, nowadays the Marañon River is generally thought to end at the confluence with the Ucayali River, after which most cartographers label the ensuing waterway the Amazon River.

There is a report in scientific works on the puncture wounds that are inflicted on the natives along the Amazon River by species of Centromochlus. In Brazil, as in much of the world, puncture wounds caused by catfish usually result from handling the netted or hooked fish. The puncture wounds are sometimes aggravated by the presence of venom glands in the skin sheath that covers the sharp and often serrated spines on the dorsal and pectoral fins of various catfish species. The riverside people who inhabit the floodplain's of Amazonian white water (turbid) rivers habitually bucket bathe which they do several times a day and most frequently at dusk. During bucket bathing, the people are dressed (men in shorts, women in frocks). For bathing, a person throws a bucket tied to a rope into the river, pulls it out, and empties it over him- or herself. At dusk and night the bucket often collects small spiny driftwood catfish, Centromochlus existimatus and Centromochlus heckelii (Auchenipteridae) which the bather inadvertently throws onto his or her body along with the water. These spiny catfish have 3 well developed and sharp spines with serrated edges, 1 in the dorsal fin and 1 in each pectoral fin, which they spread out and lock readily when frightened. This defensive behavior may result in a catfish becoming attached by its spines to several places on a bather’s body (Sazima et .al.).

Remarks: A little bit of history on our contributor Jeremy Bash who is the proprietor of the web site AmazonTropics.com. He houses over 100 aquariums ranging in size from a few gallons to well over one hundred gallons! AmazonTropics.com specializes in catfish of the families, Loricariidae and Auchenipteridae from South America. In fact, Jeremy was the first person in the world to have Liosomadoras oncinus spawn! He also maintains species from the families, Callichthyidae and Aspredinidae. Along with catfish, Jeremy also keeps some species of cichlids from the family Cichlidae, the Geophaginae which include Geophagus and Apistogramma. We thank Jeremy for his input into this months factsheet. Visit AmazonTropics.com.

Common Name:

None

Synonyms:

Auchenipterus heckelii, Centromochlus steindachneri

Family:

Auchenipteridae

Subfamily:

Centromochinae

Distribution:

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

Size:

14.0cm (5½ins)

Temp:

26-28°c (79-83°f.)

p.H.

6.5-7.5.

Characteristics

Adipose fin present, 5-8 branched anal-fin rays; anal fin oblique relative to the body axis in mature males; caudal peduncle oval in cross section.

Colouration

Body with a uniform blue-grey colour. They have a white underbelly. The dorsal and caudal fins are dusky and dark.

Aquarium Care & Compatibility

Jeremy states that unfortunately this species constantly swims in the aquarium and seems to be unable to detect the sides of the tank so 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.

Reproduction

Not reported.

Sexual differences

Urogenital opening at base of anteriormost anal-fin rays in mature males. 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.

Glossary of Terms

Caudal: The tail.
Caudal peduncle: The narrow part of a fish's body to which the caudal or tail fin is attached.
Anal fin: The median, unpaired, ventrally located fin that lies behind the anus, usually on the posterior half of the fish.
Maxillary Barbels: Pertaining to the upper jaw. (maxillary barbels).
Dorsal fin: The primary rayed fin(s) on top of the body.

Etymology

Centromochlus: Centrum = sting; mochlus = lever, from ancient Greek "lever arm", referring to the pectoral spines which can be a locked by a special mechanism.
heckelii: In honour of Johann Jakob Heckel.

References

Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
Kowalski S, Paiz LM, da Silva M, Machado AS, Feldberg E, Traldi JB, Margarido VP, Lui RL. Chromosomal analysis of Centromochlus heckelii (Siluriformes: Auchenipteridae), with a contribution to Centromochlus definition. Neotrop Ichthyol. 2020; 18(3):e200009.
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.
Sleen, van der Peter and Albert, S. James; Field guide of the Amazon, Orinoco & Guianas. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford. 2018.
Sazima, Ivan PhD, BSc; Zuanon, Jansen PhD, BSc; Haddad Jr, Vidal MD, PhD. Puncture Wounds by Driftwood Catfish During Bucket Baths: Local Habits of Riverside People and Fish Natural History in the Amazon
www.aquariumglaser.de (Frank Schäfer).
Wikipedia.org/wiki
Basch, Jeremy. AmazonTropics.com pers. comm. 2021.

Photo Credits

© Thorke A.S Østergaard
© Mark Henry Sabaj
Map by Kmusser, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/, via Wikimedia Commons.

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ScotCat Sources

Online Sources

Fishbase

Catalog of Fishes

GBIF

Fishnet2

iNaturalist