Photo: Brian Gratwicke from DC, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Glass catfish
Kryptopterus bicirrhis
12 cm
Adult size
120 L
Minimum volume
10
Minimum group
7 years
Lifespan
Water parameters
Understand these values- Genus
- Kryptopterus
- Diet
- carnivore
- Social life
- shoal
In the wild
Overview
Described in 1840 by the French zoologist Achille Valenciennes from fish from Java, Kryptopterus bicirrhis is a catfish of the family Siluridae. Kryptopterus means “hidden fin”, for its tiny dorsal fin, and bicirrhis “two barbels”.
Its name was long wrongly applied to the aquarium glass catfish (K. vitreolus), which is smaller and transparent. It reaches 15 cm and remains rare in the hobby. In Cambodia it is used to make prahok, a fermented fish paste.
- Scientific name
- Kryptopterus bicirrhis (Valenciennes, 1840)
- Classification
- Siluriformes › Siluridae
- IUCN Red List
- Least concern (LC)
Natural habitat
Mekong and Chao Phraya basins, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and Java
Observations (GBIF) and localities Native countries Rivers and lakes
It is widespread across much of Southeast Asia: Mekong, Chao Phraya, Batang Hari, Rajang, Kapuas and many smaller rivers, from Thailand to Vietnam, Malaysia and the Sunda Islands.
It lives in large, turbid rivers, often in the current near the banks, and moves into flooded fields in the rainy season; in the lakes of Danau Sentarum, on Borneo, it is abundant at the end of the wet season. It forms shoals of up to a hundred fish.
Behaviour
Gregarious and diurnal, it lives in a shoal: at least 4, ideally about ten, in a tank of at least one metre. It remains peaceful with fish of similar size.
A predator, it feeds mainly on surface insects (water bugs), crustaceans and small fish; in the aquarium it accepts sinking food, bloodworms and tubifex. Its breeding is not documented; adult males are slimmer.
Sources:FishBase Seriously Fish GBIF · Base map: Natural Earth