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 Africa (c. 45 species) and Asia (c. 15 species).[3] Most are found in rivers and associated systems, but there are also species in other freshwater habitats and a particularly rich radiation is found in the Lake Tanganyika basin with 15 species (14 endemic).[4][5]

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 (formerly used for the African species) were placed in synonymy with Mastacembelus.[1]

Species

Mastacembelus erythrotaenia is a relatively large, brightly marked Asian species that is highly prized in the aquarium trade[6]
Mastacembelus flavidus, one of the many species found only in Lake Tanganyika[4][5]
Some species are highly variable and color/pattern is not necessarily sufficient for species separation. Whether Mastacembelus sp. "Rosette" (shown) is an undescribed species or a variant of Mastacembelus shiranus is currently unknown[7][8]

There are currently 61 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. 1 2 Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2017). Species of Mastacembelus in FishBase. April 2017 version.
  4. 1 2 Brown; Rüber; Bills; Day (2010). "Mastacembelid eels support Lake Tanganyika as an evolutionary hotspot of diversification". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 10: 188. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-188.
  5. 1 2 Brown; Britz; Bills; Rüber; Day (2011). "Pectoral fin loss in the Mastacembelidae: a new species from Lake Tanganyika". Journal of Zoology. 284 (4): 286–293. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2011.00804.x.
  6. ↑ Schliewen, U. (1992). Aquarium Fish. Barron's Educational Series. ISBN 978-0812013504.
  7. ↑ Konings, Ad (1990). Ad Konings' Book of Cichlids and all the other Fishes of Lake Malawi, pp. 473—476. ISBN 978-0866225274.
  8. ↑ Oliver, M.K: Aethiomastacembelus sp. "Rosette". MalawiCichlids. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
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