Common names:
Grass-eater
General name (around Lake Albert): Wachone
Taxonomic tree
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
Order: Characiformes (Characins)
Family: Distichodontidae (Distichodus)
Genus: Distichodus
Species: Distichodus rostratus (Günther, 1864)
Number of Occurrancies: 0
Etymology(based on Sharpf & Lazara, 2019)
- Distichodus: from greek distichus, meaning of two rows; odon, meaning tooth, referring to two rows of bifid teeth on both jaws.
- rostratus: beaked, referring to pointed, prominent nose.
Synonyms: click here to view synonym
Type locality: Nile River and West Africa. Syntypes at British Museum of Natural History (BMNH)
Distinguishing characters for the genus
- A deep, short body (2-3.5 times longer than deep) and compressed
- Small ctenoid scales
- Teeth bicuspid, usually in two series
- The lower halves of the lower jaw are broadly separated
- Dorsal fin situated situated above pelvic insertion
- Adipose dorsal fin small and, together with the caudal fin) scaled
- Purplish-silver color above, silver below; young fishes with several vertical dark bars on the flank
Distinguishing characters for the species
- Lateral line with 80-98 scales; 15-17 scales between the lateral line and origin of the dorsal fin
Taxonomic remarks: This species can easily be confused with Distichodus nefasch; the only distinguishing feature is the number of scales between the origin of dorsal fin and lateral line (18-21 in D. nefasch and 15-17 in D. rostratus).
Distribution in Uganda: Murchison Nile
Occurence: Native
Habitat: Dermersal, potamodrous.
Feeding: Submerged plants
Biology: No information is available on biology of this species in Ugandan waters.
Economic importance/End use: Unknown.
IUCN conservation status: click here to view IUCN status
Threats: Unknown
Main references
- Greenwood PH. 1966. The fishes of Uganda. The Uganda Society, Kampala. 131 pages.
- Sharpf C, Lazara J.K. 2019. Fish Name Etymology Database v17. www.etyfish.org
