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The eel-tailed catfish (''Tandanus tandanus'') is a
Freshwater Catfish, Tandanus tandanus.
Fishes of Australia. Retrieved 29 Aug 2014.
The eel-tailed catfish inhabits slow moving streams, lakes and ponds with fringing vegetation. It swims close to the sand or gravel bottoms. This species is more abundant in lakes than in flowing water. Though they are usually solitary, juveniles may form aggregations. The eel-tailed catfish is found in most freshwater habitats of the Murray-Darling river system except for the upland, sub-alpine and alpine headwaters of southern tributaries. It is also present in speciated but undescribed forms in several east coast systems in northern
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...
(order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
...
Siluriformes) of the family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Plotosidae. This fish is also known as dewfish, freshwater catfish, jewfish, and tandan.
This species is a freshwater
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...
fish
A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
native to the Murray
Murray may refer to:
Businesses
* Murray (bicycle company), an American bicycle manufacturer
* Murray Motor Car Company, an American car manufacturer
* Murrays, an Australian bus company
* Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trus ...
- Darling river system of eastern Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. The scientific name for eel-tailed catfish comes from a name for the fish in an unidentified Aboriginal Australian language
The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...
- ''Tandan'' - which Major Thomas Livingston Mitchell
Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), often called Major Mitchell, was a Scottish surveyor and explorer of Southeastern Australia. He was born in Scotland and served in the British Army during the Peninsular War. ...
recorded on his 1832 expedition.
Description
Eel-tailed catfish commonly grow to about and weigh about . Fish of this species may grow up to about and weigh up to . Eel-tailed catfish may live up to about 8 years. Eel-tailed catfish have large head with thick and fleshy lips and tubular nostrils. The skin is tough and smooth. Body coloration in adults vary from olive-green to brown, black or purplish on their backs and white on the underside. A downturned mouth with fleshy lips surrounded by a number ofbarbels
In fish anatomy and turtle anatomy, a barbel is a slender, whisker like sensory organ near the mouth (sometimes called whiskers or tendrils). Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, the hagfish, the sturgeon, the z ...
assist them with feeding. They are a solid, almost cylindrical, elongate fish, with the posterior half of their body tapering into a pointed eel-like tail. A continuous fin margin surrounds this tapering posterior half of the body. Their eyes are small.
The eel-tail catfish has 4 pairs of barbels surrounding the mouth, and sharp serrated dorsal- and pectoral-fin spines which are venomous and can cause a very painful wound.Martin F. Gomon & Dianne J. Bray (2011Freshwater Catfish, Tandanus tandanus.
Fishes of Australia. Retrieved 29 Aug 2014.
Ecology
The eel-tailed catfish inhabits slow moving streams, lakes and ponds with fringing vegetation. It swims close to the sand or gravel bottoms. This species is more abundant in lakes than in flowing water. Though they are usually solitary, juveniles may form aggregations. The eel-tailed catfish is found in most freshwater habitats of the Murray-Darling river system except for the upland, sub-alpine and alpine headwaters of southern tributaries. It is also present in speciated but undescribed forms in several east coast systems in northern New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
due to natural river capture
Stream capture, river capture, river piracy or stream piracy is a geomorphological phenomenon occurring when a stream or river drainage system or watershed is diverted from its own bed, and flows down to the bed of a neighbouring stream. This ...
events.
Juvenile eel-tailed catfish feed on zooplankton
Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...
, and small insect
Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...
s, particularly chironomid
Chironomidae , commonly known as non-biting midges or chironomids , are a family of Nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the families Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Although many chironomid s ...
larvae. Fish over about 100 mm also eat small fish while adults include shrimp
A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...
s, crayfish
Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some spe ...
in the warmer months and midge larvae in winter. In addition, they eat mollusk
Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...
s and dragonfly, caddis and mayfly larvae. The eel-tailed catfish is host for a number of intestinal parasite
An intestinal parasite infection is a condition in which a parasite infects the gastro-intestinal tract of humans and other animals. Such parasites can live anywhere in the body, but most prefer the intestinal wall.
Routes of exposure and inf ...
s including cestode
Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, commonly known as tapeworms. Their bodies co ...
s and nematode
The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...
s.Couch, A.J.; 1983.
Eel-tailed catfish spawn in spring and midsummer, when the water temperature increases to between . The nest is built about one or two weeks before spawning. They build large nests up to a metre in diameter with small stones and gravel, within which the eggs are laid. One parent, sometimes both, guard the eggs until they hatch.
Conservation
Freshwater Catfish were once widespread in eastern Australia, however, populations have suffered severe declines in both distribution and abundance since the 1980s. The Murray-Darling populations of eel-tailed catfish has declined significantly over recent decades. Most populations in the southern half of the Murray-Darling river system are extinct or nearly so. The species remains relatively common in coastal catchments from the Hunter River (NSW) north. Numerous factors are thought to have contributed to the decline of Freshwater Catfish populations in the Murray-Darling Basin since the 1970s. These include habitat degradation and barriers to movement, and increased predation by and competition with introduced species such ascarp
The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...
(which has similar feeding habits) and Redfin. Severe siltation also probably severely impacts upon the species spawning by smothering the rocks and pebbles they use to build nests.
The Freshwater Catfish population in the Murray-Darling Basin is listed as:
New South Wales Fisheries Management Act 1994: Endangered
Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988: Threatened
South Australian Fisheries Management Act 2007: Protected
Populations in several rivers and impoundments in the northern half of the Murray-Darling appear secure for now. The species does well in the upland reaches of these northern Murray-Darling rivers; this is in contrast to its absence from the upland reaches of southern Murray-Darling rivers, where water temperatures are cooler.
References