Mastacembelus

Mastacembelus
Mastacembelus moorii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Synbranchiformes
Family: Mastacembelidae
Genus: Mastacembelus
Scopoli, 1777
Type species
Ophidium mastacembelus
J. Banks & Solander, 1794
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • Caecomastacembelus[1]
  • Aethiomastacembelus[1]
  • Afromastacembelus[2]

Mastacembelus is a genus of many species of spiny eel fish from the family Mastacembelidae. They are native to freshwater habitats in Africa and Asia. Some species are relatively common in the aquarium trade such as the fire eel (M. erythrotaenia) and zig-zag eel, (M. armatus) (also called the tire track eel although M. favus is properly given the common name of tire track eel).

Taxonomy

In an evaluation of the Mastacembelidae in 2005, the genera Caecomastacembelus and Aethiomastacembelus were placed in synonymy with Mastacembelus.[1]

Species

There are currently 64 recognized species in this genus:[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Vreven, E. J. (2005). "Mastacembelidae (Teleostei; Synbranchiformes) subfamily division and African generic division: an evaluation". Journal of Natural History 39 (4): 351–370. doi:10.1080/0022293042000195975.
  2. ↑ http://research.calacademy.org/redirect?url=http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp&genid=7163
  3. ↑ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2012). Species of Mastacembelus in FishBase. October 2012 version.
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