Common names:
Victoria snake catfish
Local: Unavailable
Taxonomic tree
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
Order: Siluriformes (Catfishes)
Family: Clariidae (Airbreathing catfishes)
Genus: Clariallabes
Species: Clariallabes petricola (Greenwood, 1956)
Number of Occurrancies: 0
Etymology (based on Sharpf & Lazara, 2019)
- Clariallabes: combination of Clarias and Gymnallabes, described as intermediate in form between these two genera
- petricola: petra, meaning rock; –cola, living among, referring to presumed habitat consisting of large stones and coarse pebbles, and coarse shingles overlying sandy clay
Synonyms: click here to view synonyms
Type locality: Nile River, about 1/2 miles below the Owen-falls dam, Jinja, Uganda. Holotype at British Museum of Natural History (BMNH)
Distinguishing characters for the genus: Superficially, Clariallabeslooks like Clarias. In Clariallabes, however:
- The bony sides of the skull are greatly reduced
- The dorsal, anal and caudal fins are confluent
- Adults are very small rarely exceeding 8 mm standard length.
Distinguishing characters for the species (only 1 species occurs in Uganda)
- Soft lateral aspects of the head
- confluent dorsal, anal and caudal fins
- very small eyes
- color is dark brown, almost black, shading to light brown below
Distribution in Uganda: Lake Victoria and Victoria Nile, and possibly Kyoga.
Occurence: Native
Habitat: Demersal; prefer rocky or stony substrates, where they hide among the rocks possibly inhabiting vegetated areas and swamps.
Feeding: Mainly insectivorous, but can also feed on plants and zooplankton
Biology: The species hardly exceeds 8 cm SL; females are mature at 4 cm. Nothing is known about breeding and other life history aspects of this species
Economic importance/End use: Unknown
IUCN conservation status: click here to view IUCN status
Threats: Unknown; possibly predation by piscivorous fishes in the lake (because of its small size)
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 v12. www.etyfish.org