Ghost knifefish
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 Black ghost knifefish, Apteronotus albifrons
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Adontosternarchus |
The ghost knifefishes are a family, Apteronotidae, of knifefishes. These fish can be found in the freshwater of Panama and South America.[1]
They are distinguished from other gymnotiform fishes by the presence of a caudal fin (all other families lack a caudal fin) as well as a fleshy dorsal organ represented by a longitutdinal strip along the dorsal midline.[1] The longest Apteronotid is Apteronotus magdalensis, reaching 1.3 metres.[1] These nocturnal fish have small eyes.[2] Also, sexual dimorphism exists in some genera in snout shape and jaws.[2]
Apteronotids use a high frequency tone-type electric organ discharge (EOD) to communicate.[2]
Many Apteronotids are aggressive predators of small aquatic insect larvae and fishes, though there are also piscivorous and planktivorous species. Magosternarchus spp. are very unusual, predating on the tails of other electric fishes. Other species, such as Sternarchorhynchus and Sternarchorhamphus, have tubular snouts and forage on the beds of aquatic insect larvae on the river bottom. At least one species (Sternarchogiton nattereri) eats freshwater sponges which grow on submerged trees, stumps, and other woody debris.[2]
The genus Apteronotus is artificial and many of the species do not actually belong in it.[1]
The black ghost knifefish (Apteronotus albifrons) and brown ghost knifefish (Apteronotus leptorhynchus) are readily available as aquarium fish. Others, are known to appear in the trade, but are quite rare.
[edit] Species
FishBase lists 47 species in thirteen genera, though its diversity is as high as 64 species including those undergoing description, with many more expected.[2] Another genus is being described.[1] A number of additional species have been discovered recently, for example Apteronotus milesi in 2005,[3] and many more are expected to be found.
- Genus Adontosternarchus
- Genus Apteronotus
- Black ghost knifefish, Apteronotus albifrons (Linnaeus, 1766).
- Apteronotus apurensis Fernández-Yépez, 1968.
- Apteronotus bonapartii (Castelnau, 1855).
- Apteronotus brasiliensis (Reinhardt, 1852).
- Apteronotus camposdapazi de Santana & Lehmann, 2006.[4]
- Apteronotus caudimaculosus Santana, 2003.
- Apteronotus cuchillejo (Schultz, 1949).
- Apteronotus cuchillo Schultz, 1949.
- Apteronotus ellisi (Alonso de Arámburu, 1957).
- Apteronotus eschmeyeri Santana, Maldonado-Ocampo, Severi & Mendes, 2004.
- Apteronotus jurubidae (Fowler, 1944).
- Brown ghost knifefish, Apteronotus leptorhynchus (Ellis, 1912).
- Apteronotus macrolepis (Steindachner, 1881).
- Apteronotus macrostomus (Günther, 1870).
- Apteronotus magdalenensis (Miles, 1945).
- Apteronotus marauna (Triques, 1998).
- Apteronotus mariae (Eigenmann & Fisher, 1914).
- Apteronotus milesi de Santana & Maldonado-Ocampo, 2005.[3]
- Apteronotus rostratus (Meek & Hildebrand, 1913).
- Apteronotus spurrellii (Regan, 1914).
- Genus Compsaraia
- Compsaraia compsa (Mago-Leccia, 1994).
- Genus Magosternarchus
- Magosternarchus duccis Lundberg, Cox Fernandes & Albert, 1996.
- Magosternarchus raptor Lundberg, Cox Fernandes & Albert, 1996.
- Genus Megadontognathus
- Megadontognathus cuyuniense Mago-Leccia, 1994.
- Megadontognathus kaitukaensis Campos-da-paz, 1999.
- Genus Orthosternarchus
- Orthosternarchus tamandua (Boulenger, 1898).
- Genus Parapteronotus
- Parapteronotus hasemani (Ellis, 1913).
- Genus Pariosternarchus
- Pariosternarchus amazonensis Albert & Crampton, 2006.[5]
- Genus Platyurosternarchus
- Platyurosternarchus macrostomus (Günther, 1870).
- Genus Porotergus
- Porotergus gimbeli Ellis, 1912.
- Porotergus gymnotus Ellis, 1912.
- Genus Sternarchella
- Sternarchella curvioperculata Godoy, 1968.
- Sternarchella orthos Mago-Leccia, 1994.
- Sternarchella schotti (Steindachner, 1868).
- Sternarchella sima Starks, 1913.
- Sternarchella terminalis (Eigenmann & Allen, 1942).
- Genus Sternarchogiton
- Sternarchogiton nattereri (Steindachner, 1868).
- Sternarchogiton porcinum Eigenmann & Allen, 1942.
- Genus Sternarchorhamphus
- Sternarchorhamphus muelleri (Castelnau, 1855).
- Genus Sternarchorhynchus
- Sternarchorhynchus britskii Campos-da-Paz, 2000.
- Sternarchorhynchus curumim de Santana & Crampton, 2006.[6]
- Sternarchorhynchus curvirostris (Boulenger, 1887).
- Sternarchorhynchus mesensis Campos-da-Paz, 2000.
- Sternarchorhynchus mormyrus (Steindachner, 1868).
- Sternarchorhynchus oxyrhynchus (Müller & Troschel, 1849).
- Rosen knifefish, Sternarchorhynchus roseni Mago-Leccia, 1994.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Nelson, Joseph, S. (2006). Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
- ^ a b c d e "Apteronotidae". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. February 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- ^ a b de Santana & Maldonado-Ocampo (2005). "Apteronotus milesi, a new species of ghost knifefish (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae) from the Cauca River, with a key to apteronotids from the Rio Magdalena-Cauca basin, Colombia.". Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 16 (3): 223-230.
- ^ de Santana & Lehmann (2006). "Apteronotus camposdapazi, a new species of black ghost electric knifefish, from the Rio Tocatins basin, Brazil (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae).". Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 17 (3): 261-266.
- ^ Albert & Crampton (2006). "Pariosternarchus amazonensis: a new genus and species of Neotropical electric fish (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae) from the Amazon River.". Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 17 (3): 267-274.
- ^ de Santana & Crampton (2006). "Sternarchorhynchus curumim (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae), a new species of tube-snouted ghost electric knifefish from the lowland Amazon basin, Brazil". Zootaxa 1166: 57-68.
