Belly up

📖 Overview

Adults occur in shallow waters of lakes (less than 4 m), over mud and fine sand bottom. Omnivorous, feed on seeds, insects, bivalves and detritus . Feeding becomes specialized with age and size, larger fish may feed on decapods and fish .

🔬 Taxonomy

🐟 Physical Description

Dorsal spines (total): 2; Dorsal soft rays (total): 6; Anal spines: 0. Diagnosis: recognized by its pointed snout, the rather small mouth, and the width of the premaxillary tooth plate (1/5-1/3.5, usually 1/4, of head length); vomerine dentition represented by a square to rectangular tooth plate which begins to develop at sizes between 60 and 70 mm standard length; palatine dentition developing at sizes over 100 mm standard length, initially as isolated teeth; second or third branched dorsal-fin ray always the longest; upper caudal-fin lobe much longer than lower lobe; gill rakers long and smooth; other characters, such as length of dorsal fin, number of branched rays in anal fin, and number of gill rakers on first gill arch, are subject to intraspecific variations; sexually mature males and (some) ripe females show considerable morphological differences; such specimens have often been labelled as Chrysichthys furcatus; maturity occurs probably at a rather advanced stage (at over 200 mm SL) and leads to the inflation of head, broadening of mouth and premaxillary tooth plate, shortening of spines and overgrowth of fin-spines by thick skin, the fins becoming more rounded, and the caudal-fin lobes sometimes becoming subequal; the body acquires an emaciated, thinned down appearance . Characters only clear in mature males in reproduction: adipose fin short, base contained 8-11 times in SL and measuring 28-64% of distance between dorsal fin and adipose fin; maxillary barbel not reaching beyond dorsal spine when extended; head swollen; skin mucous; spines thick and covered with skin . : elongated.

🌀 Behaviour

Behavioural data for Belly up is currently being reviewed.

🦐 Diet

Diet information for Belly up is currently being compiled.

🥚 Reproduction

Reproduction data for Belly up is currently being compiled.

🌍 Habitat & Distribution

Freshwater; demersal; potamodromous ; depth range 3 - ? m . Tropical; 22°C - 28°C ; 15°N - 13°S, 16°W - 30°E north also reported from Mauritania (Ref.

🌿 Ecology

📐 Morphometrics

🌡️ Water Parameters & Tolerance

🛡️ Conservation Assessment

📊 Population Risk & Fisheries

🌐 Names & Taxonomy

Scientific Synonyms

🐠 Related Species

🔍 Similar Species

🗺️ Global Occurrence Map

Occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) - 210 records indexed .

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