Zebra Pleco (Hypancistrus zebra)
With over 700 species, Loricariidae is the largest family of catfish. New species are constantly being described. Since it takes a while to establish a proper scientific name, new discoveries are temporarily given a ‘L number’ by which people can refer to.
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Wood-Eating Catfish … Eating Wood
Photograph by Michael Goulding/Copeia
A new species of armored, wood-eating catfish (pictured underwater) found in the Amazon rain forest feeds on a fallen tree in the Santa Ana River in Peru in 2006.
Other so-called suckermouth armored catfish species use their unique teeth to scrape organic material from the surfaces of submerged wood. But the new, as yet unnamed, species is among the dozen or so catfish species known to actually ingest wood.
Still, wood-eating catfish are largely unable to digest wood. Only associated organic material—such as algae, microscopic plants, animals, and other debris—gets absorbed into their bodies. The wood itself passes through the fish and is expelled as waste.
“The fish pass wood through their guts in less than four hours, which is incredibly fast for an animal that supposedly digests wood,” said Donovan German, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine, who is researching the digestion of wood-eating catfish.
“People think they must have an amazing consortium of microbes in their guts to help the fish digest wood, but that isn’t really what I’ve found,” he added. “The amazing microbes are in the river, on the wood itself.”
![“Unusual” Armored Catfish
Photograph by Milton Tan
A new species of suckermouth armored catfish (pictured) has been found in Ecuador, a new study says.
DePaul University scientist Windsor Aguirre found five specimens of the odd-looking fish in 2008 in the Santa Rosa River (map) and sent it to Alabama’s Auburn University for identification.
“When we first realized it was new, it wasn’t particularly surprising—this family [of catfish] increases in number every year,” said study leader Milton Tan, a Ph.D. student in biology at Auburn.
Instead, what interested Tan and colleagues is that the 2.8-inch-long (7-centimeter-long) species—unlike its relatives—lacks armored plates on the sides of its head.
The lack of head plates suggests the species is a “missing link” between other Cordylancistrus species and the related genus Chaetostoma, which has an unplated snout, Tan said.
The arrangement makes the new species “a really unusual fish,” said Tan, who named the animal Cordylancistrus santarosensis after its home river.
“That’s important, because the fish species in Ecuador are not particularly diverse, [and we wanted to] let people know [there’s a fish] in Ecuador that’s particularly unique and only found there.”](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/pictures/120410-new-armored-suckermouth-catfish-discovery-animals-science/?source=link_fb20120410news-suckermouthcatfish#/tan-armbruster-catfish-1_51291_600x450.jpg)
Photograph by Milton Tan
A new species of suckermouth armored catfish (pictured) has been found in Ecuador, a new study says.
DePaul University scientist Windsor Aguirre found five specimens of the odd-looking fish in 2008 in the Santa Rosa River (map) and sent it to Alabama’s Auburn University for identification.
“When we first realized it was new, it wasn’t particularly surprising—this family [of catfish] increases in number every year,” said study leader Milton Tan, a Ph.D. student in biology at Auburn.
Instead, what interested Tan and colleagues is that the 2.8-inch-long (7-centimeter-long) species—unlike its relatives—lacks armored plates on the sides of its head.
The lack of head plates suggests the species is a “missing link” between other Cordylancistrus species and the related genus Chaetostoma, which has an unplated snout, Tan said.
The arrangement makes the new species “a really unusual fish,” said Tan, who named the animal Cordylancistrus santarosensis after its home river.
“That’s important, because the fish species in Ecuador are not particularly diverse, [and we wanted to] let people know [there’s a fish] in Ecuador that’s particularly unique and only found there.”
Leopard Frog Pleco “L134”
With over 700 species, Loricariidae is the largest family of catfish. New species are constantly being described. Since it takes a while to establish a proper scientific name, new discoveries are temporarily given a ‘L number’ by which people can refer to.
Bristlenosed Pleco (Ancistrus Dolichopterus)
Unusually for bony fish, many species of Loricariid catfish have a modified iris called an omega iris. The top part of the iris descends to form a loop which can expand and contract called an iris operculum; when light levels are high, the pupil reduces in diameter and the loop expands to cover the center of the pupil giving rise to a crescent shaped light transmitting portion.This feature gets its name from its similarity to an upside-down Greek letter omega (Ω). The origins of this structure are unknown, but it has been suggested that breaking up the outline of the highly visible eye aids camouflage in what are often highly mottled animals
Royal Pleco (Panaque nigrolineatus)
Members of the family Loricariidae are commonly referred to as suckermouth armoured catfishes, armoured catfish, ‘plecos’ or simply ‘plecs’; a shortened form of the species name plecostomus.
Zebra Pleco (Hypancistrus zebra)
The Zebra Pleco gets its name from its black and white stripes, resembling the colouration of a zebra. It is a species of catfish endemic to Brazil where it occurs in the Big Bend area of the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon River, and was first described in the early 1990s.
The pleco, along with many other fish species are threatened to become extinct by the building of the Belo Monte Dam, which will cause a severe reduction of the water flow of the entire known distribution range of the species.
