Scientific Name: Phreatobius sp.(1)
Common Name: Land Catfish
Size: 1.2"
Notes on ID:
Not surprisingly this species has yet to be imported as an aquarium
fish. They are reportedly rare in the wild but this is more likely
because of insufficient distribution data, unimportance to the
local people and the small size of the fish than true
scarcity.
Sexing: Unknown
Distribution: Brazil
General Information:
It is labelled Phreatobius walkeri in the Guinness book of records
(GBOR), but this is a ''nomen nudum'' (literally a naked name)
which means that this name is not scientifically valid and indeed
cannot be used in future. It is stated within the GBOR that, ''this
is the only known fish in the world that solely lives on land.
Other fish species (including some other catfish) can spend some of
their time on land, but not all their time''. From a ''certain
point of view'', this makes this catfish the ''newest fish on
land''! In truth this isn't quite right - it's not DRY land. This
Phraetobius is only and always found within the sodden leaf litter
banks by the stream edges. As you can see it is a small, wormlike
catfish and was found in the middle of the 1980s in Brazil. This
species lives a full life on ''land'' among fallen leaves near the
river. It is reported that if it is returned to water, it will
quickly jump out of it again, but this seems unlikely. This fish is
currently placed in the Heptapteridae family but has many
similarities with the Trichomycteridae. Its ''halfway house''
characteristics might even merit the creation of a new catfish
family. Many authors consider this genus a junior synonym of
Heptapterus.
Information Taken From:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/scripts/clog_link.php?q=phreatobius+sp(1)
