Finding new catfish species

A group of fishermen led by Dr. Stuart Welsh from West Virginia University (USA) has published detailed descriptions of a new species of catfish. This newly discovered fish lives on the Tully River in North Queenland, Australia.

New catfish species - (Photo: James Cook University)

Scientists have long suspected that there is a special catfish in Northern Queenland and so far, through detailed examination, they have confirmed it to be a unique species of fish compared to their relatives.

The new fish is named Tandanus tropicanus , has a large head but the eyes are small and thick, the lips with the flesh slump down, and there are whiskers around its mouth.

Fish body is quite firm, cylindrical body but in the end it is small like eel or eel. A detailed description of this new species has just been published in the Copeia magazine.

Genetic analysis has shown that it is a separate fish. In addition, the new fish body measuring indicators also show differences from their relatives.

When maturing, Tandanus tropicanus is about 40cm long and is a favorite food source for fishermen in this area.

Sci-News magazine quoted Dr. Damien Burrows from James Cook University (Australia), co-author of the findings, said the newly caught fish to eat quite a lot before people determined about its body. The discovery of this new catfish shows that there is still a lot of unknown to living organisms in the basins near the place of human habitation.