The closer relatives of Tatia are quite well known aquaristically, as several species have proven to be easy to keep and breed. The attractive coloration of some species makes up for the fact that these animals are rarely seen during the day. They only leave their hiding places at feeding times. The following applies to the hiding place: the closer, the better, because Tatia love physical contact.
Three species in particular are often confused with each other and it still does not seem to be clear which is which: Tatia aulopygia, T. galaxias and T. intermedia. All three have a rather elongated, cylindrical body with a dark ground color. Usually (but by no means always, there are also unicolored animals in T. intermedia) there is a bright dot pattern on it. If dots are present, T. galaxias differs from the other two in the shape of the dots: circular. In T. aulopygia and T. intermedia the dots/spots are always longitudinal oval. It is difficult to distinguish between T. aulopygia and T. intermedia on the basis of coloration, for this you have to look at an anatomical detail. The thorny shoulder process bone, the so-called cleithrum (it lies on the outside of the body and is therefore easy to see on the living animal), is short in T. intermedia. It always ends in front of an imaginary vertical line from the base of the dorsal fin to the belly. In T. aulopygia this process is much longer and protrudes far beyond the imaginary line.
As nice as this species differentiation model sounds, it is sometimes ambiguous. It seems important to always look at several individuals in order to arrive at a useful result.
Indonesia is currently offering offspring of a Tatia species of this group of forms as “T. galaxias”. This is certainly not this species. All characteristics point to T. intermedia. Tatia intermedia reaches a length of around 10 cm, but becomes sexually mature at about half this length. As with all Tatia species, the anal fin of sexually mature males is transformed into a mating organ. These catfish have internal fertilization, so no male needs to be present when the eggs are laid.
For our customers: T. intermedia have code 295713 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
