Clarias nigricans
Clarias nigricans is a species of clariid catfish. It is only known from the Mahakam River in eastern Borneo. The eel-like catfish of this region were long assumed to belong to the widespread species Clarias nieuhofii but examination of 6 specimens purchased from a fish market in Samarinda in 1999 and preserved specimens from the same location revealed consistent and distinctive differences indicating a separate species.
| Clarias nigricans | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Siluriformes |
| Family: | Clariidae |
| Genus: | Clarias |
| Species: | C. nigricans |
| Binomial name | |
| Clarias nigricans H. H. Ng, 2003 | |
This is an elongated catfish up to 30.8 cm (12.1 inches) standard length. Compared to C. nieuhofii it has a "neck" distinctly narrower than the head, giving the head an egg-shaped appearance when viewed from above or below and the overall colour is much darker: purplish grey with much fainter white spots arranged in one row below the lateral line instead of two.
References
- Ng, H.H. (2019). "Clarias nigricans". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019: e.T91226566A91226573. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- Ng, H. H. (2003). Clarias nigricans, a new species of clariid catfish (Teleostei: Siluriformes) from eastern Borneo. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 51: 393–398.
- Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2011). "Clarias nigricans" in FishBase. December 2011 version.