The past days were dominated by whiptail catfish. Along with our first importation of Pseudoloricaria sp. (see http://www.aquariumglaser.de/aktuelles/pseudoloricaria-sp-2/) came as bycatch not less than four different species of Hemiloricaria! This is extremely unusual, for all these species have a very similar way of life and so they stand in direct competetion to each other. The four species are Hemiloricaria fallax, H. teffeana, H. castroi, and H. sp. Barcelos.
May this be as it is: we also obtained – from the very same area – even a fifth species, namely Hemilorcaria sp. Weißdorn, also known under the name H. sp. Amazonia. Raphael Covain, a French scientist that works a lot with Rineloricaria, informed us – based on his research on the genus – that the latter species is identical with Rineloricaria platyura.
The generic names Hemiloricaria and Rineloricaria have both been established in 1862 by P. Bleeker. The validity of Hemiloricaria is reason for a debate among scientists. There are two basic opinions, the one is that both genera are valid, the other (i.a. the one of Covain) that Hemiloricaria is a synonym od Rineloricaria.
We are not specialized in this group of fish and simply follow the opinion that is most commonly shared in the German speaking area. This is that Hemiloricaria is a valid genus. In any case we thank Raphael Covain sincerely for his help. Many thanks also to Ingo Seidel who helped us to identify the bycatches of Pseudoloricaria.
For our customers: we currently have the following species that were mentioned above in stock: H. sp. Weißdorn/H. platyura (code 288965), H. fallax (code 287804) and one specimen of H. cf. castroi (code 287655). Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
