It was believed for quite a long time that the genus Auchipterichthys would contain only one or two, very far spread species. In 2005 Ferraris, Vari, and Raredon revised the genus and could show that in reality four different species are involved. The species that was thought so far to be the most common in the hobby turned out to be restricted in distribution to the upper Rio Madeira basin: A. thoracatus. The most often imported species from the Amazon river basin is A. coracoideus and the most widespread species of the genus A. longimanus.
As early as 1840 a species of Auchenipterichthys was described by Cuvier and Valenciennes under the name of Auchenipterus punctatus. The species was forgotten for a long time, only 1996 it was „rediscovered“ and placed in the genus Auchenipterichthys. This is the only species in Auchenipterichthys with clearly visible round spots and so pretty easy identifyable. So far it has been reported only from the upper Orinoco and the Rio Negro in Venezuela, and from the central portion of the Amazon river in Brazil. The maximum size the species can attain is about 15-20 cm.
Now we were able to import Auchenipterichthys punctatus that were collected in Venezuela. It is quite astonishing that the females, despite they are only 6-7 cm long, already show a belly swollen from eggs.
For our customers: the fish have code 209653 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
