This week we introduced to you already a species of knifefish from Peru: Brachyhypopomus brevirostris (see http://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/news.php#1122). The odd Sternarchorhynchus, which is theme of this newsletter, originates also from Peru, but belongs to a different family, eg the Apteronotidae.
The number of described species of Sternarchorhynchus has risen enormously in the past few years. Up to 1994 only 4 species where known, in 2006 the number of known species increased to 10 and now (2014) 32 species are accepted! This makes the genus Sternarchorhynchus the most species-rich genus of the Apteronotidae. The main differences between the species can be found in the shape of the snout. When the fish occurred here only a quite rough determination was possible. This is why they are listed under the name of S. mormyrus on our stocklist. The analysis of the photos, however, makes it much more likely that our fish belong to the species S. goeldii, which has been described only in 2010. S. mormyrus becomes about 50 cm long, S. goeldii about 30 cm. Currently our fish are 14-16 cm long.
However, more interesting than the question how the fish should be named is their behaviour. The animals are a bit quarrelsome against each other. But they do not hurt their counterpart, they swim with high speed and breathtaking elegance around each other. The better swimmer wins the combat. Also a very special role of the snout can be observed while he fish are fighting: they use it like the sword of a foil fencer. The pictures published here are the first existing ones to document this fascinating behaviour.
Feeding Sternarchorhynchus in aquaria is no problem, the fish take readily any type of live and frozen food.
For our customers: the fish have code 293974 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade. Available in very limited numbers only!
Lexicon: Sternarchorhynchus means “snout with the anus at the breast”; this refers, of course, to the long snout and to the fact that in Sternarchorhynchus the anus is placed immediately behind the head. mormyrus: means “mormyrid”; the members of the African fish genus Mormyrus have a comparably long snout. goeldii: dedication name for Emilio (actually Emil) Goeldi (1859-1917) as a appreciation for his merits regarding the knowledge of the animals of Amazonia.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
| Angaben zum Tier | |
|---|---|
| Herkunft | Peru |
| Verfügbare Größe in cm | 14-16 |
