Suckermouthed catfish

Suckermouthed catfish

Photos:

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypostomus_punctatus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypostomus_plecostomus

http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A1_d%E1%BB%8Dn_b%E1%BB%83

My primitive fish tank – 1 month and 5 days

My fish tank: primitive fish tank

Setup date: 15/12/2012

Size: 0.6×0.4×0.3 m

Fishes:

• Bichir: Senegalus bichir: 2, Saddled bichir: 2
• Gar: Florida gar: 1
• Suckermouthed catfish: Hypostomus punctatus: 1

Photos:

Life = 12 hours

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_period

Arowana

Arowana and Arapaima

Arowana are fishes in family Osteoglossidae. They are also known as the name bonytounges, because of their toothed bone on the floor of the mouth. Arowana can “breathe” by sucking oxygen into the swim bladder lined with capillaries like lung tissue.

Photos:

The family contains two subfamilies, Heterotidinae and Osteoglossinae, with all but two of the ten extant species being members of the latter. Species are given with one or more prominent common names.

Family Osteoglossidae

• Subfamily Heterotidinae
  • Genus Arapaima
    • Arapaima or pirarucu, Arapaima gigas (Cuvier, 1829)
  • Genus Heterotis
    • African arowana, Heterotis niloticus (Cuvier, 1829)
• Subfamily Osteoglossinae
  • Genus Osteoglossum (Cuvier, 1829)
    • Silver arowana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum (Cuvier, 1829)
    • Black arowana, Osteoglossum ferreirai Kanazawa, 1966
  • Genus Scleropages
    • Red-tailed golden arowana Scleropages aureus (Pouyad, Sudarto & Teugels, 2003)
    • Green arowana or gold crossback arowana, Scleropages formosus (Schlegel & Müller, 1844)
    • Scleropages inscriptus Myanmar arowana (Roberts, T.R. 2012) (Ref. 90179)
    • Gulf saratoga, red saratoga or northern spotted barramundi, Scleropages jardinii ^‡ (Saville-Kent, 1892)
    • Red arowana, super red arowana, or chili red arowana, Scleropages legendrei (Pouyad, Sudarto & Teugels, 2003)
    • Saratoga, silver saratoga or spotted barramundi, Scleropages leichardti ^‡ Günther, 1864
    • Silver Asian arowana, Scleropages macrocephalus (Pouyad, Sudarto & Teugels, 2003)

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteoglossidae

http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=355155

http://www.arowana.com.vn/forum/f10/phan-loai-ca-rong-bang-hinh-anh-11364.html

Lungfish

Lungfish

Lungfish are considered to be the most primitive living fishes. There are 3 families and 6 extant species of these ancient fishes.

• Australian lungfish (Family Ceratodontidae): 1 species
• African lungfish (Family Protopteridae): 4 species
• South American lungfish (Family Lepidosirenidae): 1 species

The Australian lungfish is considered the most primitive extant species of lungfish.

Members of these species possess 1 lung (Australian lungfish) or 2 lungs (South American, African lungfish) which they use to breathe atmospheric oxygen. When young, lungfishes possess external gills, which are lost when they grow up.

Their teeth fuse together to the form tooth plates which they use to chew their food.

Photos:

References:

http://biology.livejournal.com/185482.html

http://primitivefishes.com/lungfishes

Sturgeon

Sturgeon

Sturgeon is the common name used for 26 species of fish in the family Acipenseridae. The term includes 20 species referred to as sturgeon and several closely related species.

Several species of sturgeons are harvested for their roes, which is made into caviar – a luxury food.

Nowadays sturgeons and their ancestors have little morphological differences. In about 200 million years (from Triassic Period), their evolution has been exceptionally slow. This is explained by long generation interval, tolerance for wide ranges of temperature and salinity, lack of predators due to size and the abundance of prey items. Sturgeon is called a living fossil.

The species determine is very difficult because their peculiar ability to produce reproductively viable hybrids, even between different genera.

Sturgeon are primarily cartilaginous. Their body is partially covered  with bony plates called scutes rather than scales.  Sturgeon have four barbels, an tactile organs, precede their toothless mouth. Sturgeon are determined by their elongated bodies, scutes, barbels and elongated upper tail lobes.

Photos:

Sturgeon:

 

Caviar:

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_sturgeon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellokitty893112/5457894714/lightbox

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellokitty893112

Gar

Gar

Name gar in American English is members of family Lepisosteidae, the most primitive predatory species. (In Old English, word gar meaning “spear”). Gar have lived in North American water for 50 million years. Extant members of this family were found in North and Central America and Cuba, represented by two genera and seven species.

Unlike other gars, Alliagator Gar is the most impressed with a dual rows of teeth in upper jaw and its huge size (The largest taken is about 166kg).

 

Photos:

 

Family Lepisoteidae:
Genus Atractosteus
Atractosteus spatula (Lacépède, 1803) (Alligator gar)
Atractosteus tristoechus (Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801) (Cuban gar)
Atractosteus tropicus Gill, 1863 (Tropical gar)
Genus Lepisosteus
Lepisosteus oculatus Winchell, 1864 (Spotted gar)
Lepisosteus osseus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Longnose gar)
Lepisosteus platostomus Rafinesque, 1820 (Shortnose gar)
Lepisosteus platyrhincus DeKay, 1842 (Florida gar)

Bichir

The family Polypteridae consists of:

• Bichir (genus Polypterus)
• Ropefish (reedfish, genus Erpetoichthys)

The polypterus is the only discovered vertebrate to have lungs, but no trachea.  The type species of this genus is The Nile Bichir (Polypterus Bichir).

The etymology of the genus name derives from a combination of the Greek prefix πολυ-, poly- (many) and the root word πτερον, pterus (wing or fin) – “many fins.”

Photos:

Polypterus senegalus

 

Common Name: Senegal bichir, Cuvier’s bichir, Dinosaur eel, Gray Bichir
Scientific Name: Polypterus senegalus
Size: 48 cm
Breed: any fish can fit bichir’s mouth
Life Span: 8-12 years

Polypterus endlicheri endlicheri – Saddled Bichir

Genus Polypterus Lacépède, 1803

• Retropinnis group
  • Polypterus retropinnis Vaillant, 1899 (West African bichir)
• Bichir group
  • Polypterus ansorgii Boulenger, 1910 (Guinean bichir)
  • Polypterus bichir Lacépède, 1803 (Nile bichir)
    • P. b. bichir Lacepède, 1803
    • P. b. lapradei Steindachner, 1869
  • Polypterus congicus Boulenger, 1898 (Congo bichir)
  • Polypterus endlicheri Heckel, 1847 (saddled bichir, Khủng long hoàng đế, Cửu sừng hoàng đế)
• Weeksii group
  • Polypterus mokelembembe Schliewen & Schäfer, 2006 (Mokèlé-mbèmbé bichir)
  • Polypterus ornatipinnis Boulenger, 1902 (ornate bichir)
  • Polypterus weeksii Boulenger, 1898 (mottled bichir, Khủng long bông, Cửu sửng hoa)
• Senegalus group
  • Polypterus delhezi Boulenger, 1899 (barred bichir)
  • Polypterus palmas Ayres, 1850 (shortfin bichir)
    • P. p. buettikoferi Steindachner, 1891
    • P. p. palmas Ayres, 1850
    • P. p. polli J. P. Gosse, 1988
  • Polypterus senegalus Cuvier, 1829 (gray bichir, khủng long xám, khủng long vàng)
    • P. s. meridionalis Poll, 1941 (most likely avariant of P. s. senegalus)
    • P. s. senegalus Cuvier, 1829
  • Polypterus teugelsi Britz, 2004 (Cross River bichir)

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypterus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bichir

http://primitivefishes.com/polypterus

http://theaquariumwiki.com/Polypterus_senegalus

http://theaquariumwiki.com/Polypteridae

Biological classification

Biological classification

Bowfin

Amiidae is a family of primitive ray-finned fish. Only one species, Amia calva, the bowfin, survives today, although additional species in all four subfamilies are known from Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Eocene fossils.
Bowfins are now found throughout eastern North America, typically in slow-moving backwaters, canals and ox-bow lakes. When the oxygen level is low (as often happens in still waters), bowfins can rise to the surface and gulp air into its swim bladder, which is lined with blood vessels and can serve as a primitive lung. Bowfin are also known as mudfish, dogfish, grindle, grinnel, cypress trout, and blackfish.

Amidaee, bowfin  Ami calva and  Lepisosteids (Lepisosteiformes) – the gars are two species in 2 orders in Holostei infraclass.

The bowfin, a living fossil not to be confused with the snakehead (family Channidae from Africa and Asia)

Bowfin and snakehead

Photos:

Bowfin an Snakehead

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holostei

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiidae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channidae

http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%E1%BB%8D_C%C3%A1_qu%E1%BA%A3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocephalus_striatus

http://www.arowana.com.vn/forum/f76/nuoi-ca-loc-lam-canh-7035.html