Cooper Creek catfish
The Cooper Creek catfish, Neosiluroides cooperensis, is a species of catfish (order Siluriformes) of the family Plotosidae, and is the only species of the genus Neosiluroides.[1][2] It is known from the Cooper Creek system of the Lake Eyre drainage.[1][3] This species grows up to about 46.0 centimetres (18.1 in) SL.[3]
| Cooper Creek catfish | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Siluriformes |
| Family: | Plotosidae |
| Genus: | Neosiluroides Allen & Feinberg, 1998 |
| Species: | N. cooperensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Neosiluroides cooperensis Allen & Feinberg, 1998 | |
It is usually found in larger, more permanent waterholes with an earth and clay substrate, where significant flow occurs only after severe rainfall events; at this time, water is typically very turbid. It is very aggressive towards other fishes, particularly in captivity.[3] These fish feed on gastropods and crustaceans.[3] This species has the largest egg size (3–4 millimetres or .12–.16–in) and the lowest fecundity(about 1000 eggs per spawning) per unit length of any plotosid catfish in Australia.[3]
References
- Ferraris, Carl J. Jr. (2007). "Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1418: 1–628.
- "Cooper Creek Catfish". Fish.gov.au. Archived from the original on 1 September 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
- Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2007). "Neosiluroides cooperensis" in FishBase. Aug 2007 version.