This extraordinary catfish is a popular aquarium inhabitant for more than 80 years now. The scientists Heok Hee Ng and Maurice Kottelat found out that it has been mis-identified over eight decades as Kryptopterus bicirrhis or K. minor and that the Ghost glass catfish represents a so far undescribed species. They named it as Kryptopterus vitreolus now.
Kryptopterus bicirrhis looks very different. It is not that translucend. K. bicirrhis becomes about 15 cm long which is much more that K. vitreolus (about 7 cm). The K. bicirrhis we show here was a by catch in our K. vitreolus which we currently offer in show size. K. minor originates from the island of Borneo and has in all probabilty never been imported as an ornamental fish. K. vitreolus originates from Thailand only.
For our customers: the fish has code 422005 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Lexicon: Kryptopterus: ancient Greek, means “with hidden fin”. bicirrhis: Latin, means “with two filaments”. minor: Latin, means “small”. vitreolus: Latin, means “small glass”.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
