Horabagrus is a genus of catfish in the family Horabagridae endemic to rivers in the Western Ghats in Kerala and Karnataka, India.[1] H. brachysoma is an important food fish and members of this genus can be found in the aquarium trade.

Horabagrus
Horabagrus brachysoma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Siluriformes
Family: Bagridae
Genus: Horabagrus
Jayaram, 1955
Type species
Pseudobagrus brachysoma
Günther, 1864

Taxonomy

edit

The genus Horabagrus is usually classified under the family Bagridae, but there are disagreements. The genus name is after the Indian zoologist Sunder Lal Hora. Though listed under Bagridae, Horabagrus is not listed under either of the two Bagrid subfamilies by the All Catfish Species Inventory.[2] In Nelson (2006), the genus is provisionally placed in the family Schilbeidae, where it is sometimes recognized as its own subfamily. In de Pinna (1998), this genus is classified as sister to the catfishes Pangasiidae and above, which would require a separate family.[3] This genus has also been classified in its own family Horabagridae.[4] In a 2007 paper, Horabagrus was not classified under any current catfish families.[5] In 2016, Wang et al. placed this genus in the family Horabagridae.[1]

Species

edit

There are currently 2 recognized species in this genus:[6]

 
The Diagram

A third species, Horabagrus melanosoma, was described in 2013,[7] but later authorities considered it inseparable from H. brachysoma and therefore a junior synonym.[8]

In the aquarium

edit
 
A juvenile Horabagrus catfish in an aquarium

H. brachysoma is a common fish in the aquarium trade. H. nigricollaris is more seldom seen because it is not commercially farmed like H. brachysoma .[9] Nevertheless, the care for these two species is similar. These fish are adaptable and are not picky about water conditions; also, they are hardy and easy to feed. However, these fish are light-shy and require plants or decorations to hide underneath for darkness; these fish are relatively secretive during the day.[9][10]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Hofreiter, Michael; Wang, Jing; Lu, Bin; Zan, Ruiguang; Chai, Jing; Ma, Wei; Jin, Wei; Duan, Rongyao; Luo, Jing; Murphy, Robert W.; Xiao, Heng; Chen, Ziming (2016). "Phylogenetic relationships of five Asian schilbid genera including Clupisoma (Siluriformes: Schilbeidae)". PLOS ONE. 11 (1): e0145675. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1145675W. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145675. PMC 4713424. PMID 26751688.
  2. ^ "Bagridae genera". All Catfish Species Inventory.
  3. ^ Nelson, J.S. (2006). Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-25031-7.
  4. ^ Sullivan, J.P.; Lundberg, J.G.; Hardman, M. (2006). "A phylogenetic analysis of the major groups of catfishes (Teleostei: Siluriformes) using rag1 and rag2 nuclear gene sequences". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 41 (3): 636–662. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.05.044. PMID 16876440.
  5. ^ Ferraris, C.J.Jr. (2007). "Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1418: 1–628. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1418.1.1.
  6. ^ Eschmeyer, W. N.; R. Fricke; R. van der Laan, eds. (2 May 2016). "Catalog of Fishes". California Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 3 May 2015. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  7. ^ Plamoottil, and Abraham (2013). Horabagrus melanosoma, a new fish species (Actinopterygii: Siluriformes) from Kerala, India. Intl. J. Pure Appl. Zool. 1(4): 280-288.
  8. ^ Ali, Katwate, Philip, Dhaneesh, Bijukumar, Raghavan, and Dahanukar (2014). Horabagrus melanosoma: a junior synonym of Horabagrus brachysoma (Teleostei: Horabagridae). ZooTaxa 3881 (4).
  9. ^ a b "PlanetCatfish: Catfish of the Month: September 2001".
  10. ^ "PlanetCatfish: Cat-eLog: Horabagrus brachysoma". Archived from the original on 2012-10-13. Retrieved 2007-05-18.