P. aureatus P. albomaculatus P. bathyphilus P. changae P. cochliodon P. dentex P. gnomus — Dwarf panaque P. maccus P. nigrolineatus P. nocturnus — Dusky panaque P. pariolispos P. purusiensis P. suttonorum

The genus Panaque contains a small number of small to medium sized South American South America is the southern continent of America, situated in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest armoured catfishes that are notable for being among the very few vertebrates that feed extensively on wood Xylophagy is a term used in ecology to describe the habits of an herbivorous animal whose diet consists primarily of wood. The word derives from Greek ξυλοφάγος (xulophagos) "eating wood", from ξύλον (xulon) "wood" and φαγεῖν (phagein) "to eat", an ancient Greek name for a kind of a worm-eating.[1] In addition, algae and aufwuchs are an important part of the diet, and they use their rasping teeth to scrape this from rocks. These fish are also popular aquarium An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants. The term combines the Latin root aqua, meaning water, with the suffix -arium, meaning "a place for relating to& fish, where the sound of scraping as these fish forage for food is easily audible.

Contents

Taxonomy

The genus Panaque was described in 1889 by Rosa Smith Eigenmann and Carl H. Eigenmann.[2] The type species is Panaque nigrolineatus.[3]

Subgenera

Scobinancistrus and Panaqolus are variably recognized as individual valid genera. However, Armbruster proposes that they be classified as subgenera under Panaque as all three groups are closely related. With this in mind, the species list arranged by subgenera would be as below.[2]

Species List

Genus Panaque

Etymology

The name Panaque is a Latinisation of a native Venezuelan name for these fish. It is pronounced "pan ack" in Britain and Europe, but often as "pan aki" or "pan a kay" in America. The Japanese call these fish "pana koo ee".

Distribution and habitat

Panaque are found in the Magdalena River The Magdalena River , also called Yuma River (Spanish: Río Yuma ) is the principal river of Colombia, flowing northward about 1,540 kilometres (950 miles) through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure, Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the, Orinoco River The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at 2,140 km, . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia, covers 880,000 km², 76.3% in Venezuela with the rest in Colombia. The Orinoco and its tributaries are the major transportation system for eastern and interior Venezuela and the llanos of Colombia, Amazon River The Amazon River (Portuguese: Rio Amazonas; Spanish: Río Amazonas; pronounced /ˈæməzɒn/ ; /ˈæməzən/ (UK)) of South America is the largest river in the world with a total river flow greater than the next ten largest rivers combined. The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounts for approximately one-fifth of the, Essequibo River The Essequibo River is the longest river in Guyana, and the largest river between the Orinoco and Amazon. Rising in the Acarai Mountains near the Brazil-Guyana border, the Essequibo flows to the north for 1,010 km through forest and savanna into the Atlantic Ocean, and Lake Maracaibo Lake Maracaibo is a large brackish lake in Venezuela at 10°39′N 71°36′W / 10.65°N 71.6°W. It is connected to the Gulf of Venezuela by Tablazo Strait at the northern end, and fed by numerous rivers, the largest being the Catatumbo. It is commonly considered a lake rather than a bay, and at 13,210 km² it would be the largest lake in drainages.[4] All Panaque come from tropical South American and inhabit fast-flowing streams and rivers. They are weak swimmers but like other armoured catfish possess a strong sucker-like mouth with which they can hold on to submerged rocks and wood.

Physical characteristics

Mouth and teeth of Panaque nigrolineatus

Like other members of the armoured catfish family (Loricariidae), all Panaque have sturdy, armoured bodies covered in toughened plates of skin called scutes A scute or scutum is a bony external plate or scale, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodilians, or the feet of some birds. These are not scales; like all catfish, Panaque lack scales. As well their armour, these catfish have very sturdy dorsal In anatomy, the dorsum is the upper side of animals that typically run, fly, or swim in a horizontal position, and the back side of animals that walk upright. In vertebrates the dorsum contains the backbone. The term dorsal refers to anatomical structures that are either situated toward or grow off that side of an animal. The opposite side of the and pectoral fin spines. They use these defensively, either to wedge themselves into cracks from which predators cannot pull them, or else to prevent large predators from swallowing them. Another characteristic typical of the armoured catfish family is an iris The iris is a thin, circular structure in the eye, responsible for controlling the diameter and size of the pupils and the amount of light reaching the pupil. "Eye color" is the color of the iris, which can be green, blue, or brown. In some cases it can be hazel (light brown). In response to the amount of light entering the eye, muscles. Most fish are unable to regulate the amount of light that enters the eye since they have irises that cannot change size. Both male and female Panaque develop bristles, known as odontodes Odontodes, or dermal teeth, are hard structures found on the external surfaces of animals or near internal openings. They comprise a soft pulp surrounded by dentine and covered by a mineralized substance such as enamel, a structure similar to that of teeth. They generally do not have the same function as teeth, and are not replaced the same way, on the side of head immediately before and onto the pectoral fins.

Unlike predatory catfish, these omnivorous Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material primarily. Pigs are one well-known example of an omnivore. Crows are another example of an omnivore that many people see every day. Humans are regarded catfish have very short barbels. These barbels can be seen in the photograph of mouth of a Panaque shown here; they are the short pointed structures on either side of a suckermouth All Loricariidae possess a suckermouth as do the cypriniform algae eaters of the genus Gyrinocheilus and other genera. The 'False Siamensis' also has this feature. Three genera in Mochokidae, Atopochilus, Chiloglanis, and Euchilichthys, also possess an oral sucker, formed by the lips and part of the barbels. The Loricariidae and members of the. This sucker-like mouth allows them to attach to rocks and remain stationary with very little expenditure of energy.

Xylophagy (wood consumption and digestion)

Along with the species of the Hypostomus cochliodon group (formerly the genus Cochliodon), it has been argued that Panaque are the only fish that can eat and digest wood.[4] These fish have particular adaptations to its wood diet include spoon-shaped, scraper-like teeth and highly angled jaws to chisel wood.[4] Researchers have also identified symbiotic The term symbiosis commonly describes close and often long-term interactions between different biological species. The term was first used in 1879 by the German mycologist Heinrich Anton de Bary, who defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms." The definition of symbiosis is in flux, and the term has been applied to a wide gut bacteria that may allow the fish to digest the wood they consume.[5] However, others have argued that Panaque do not in fact digest wood, and in fact take up very little energy from the wood they consume and actually lose weight when fed just wood.[6] Furthermore, their digestive tracts are no different from those of related catfish and they do not hold wood particles in the gut longer than other catfish, suggesting Panaque are not phyisically adapted to eating wood, and are in fact detritivores Detritivores, also known as detritus feeders or saprophages, are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus . By doing so, they contribute to decomposition and the nutrient cycles much like other Loricariidae.[6]

In the aquarium

Several species of Panaque have become popular aquarium fish, in particular the brightly coloured Panaque nigrolineatus. This fish is known as the "royal panaque" or "royal plec", a reflection of its costliness and beauty when compared with the common plecs, Hypostomus spp. widely sold to aquarists as algae eaters. Royal plecs have a greyish-green background colour against which are set thick, dark bluish-black stripes. The fins are edged with gold or cream, and the eyes are red. In captivity, royal plecs typically grow to around 30 cm in length.[7]

A second species, Panaque cochliodon, is familiar to many aquarists as the blue-eyed plec. This fish was quite widely traded in the late 1980s and early 1990s but is now only rarely exported from its native Colombia.[8] Aquarium books often refer to the blue-eyed plec as Panaque suttonorum or Panaque suttoni, though Panaque suttonorum is in fact a quite different fish that only comes from Venezuela. Blue-eyed plecs reach a similar size to royal plecs, but because many specimens are infected with a bacterium closely related to Rickettsia Rickettsia is a genus of non-motile, Gram-negative, non-sporeforming, highly pleomorphic bacteria that can present as cocci , rods (1–4 μm long) or thread-like (10 μm long). Obligate intracellular parasites, the Rickettsia survival depends on entry, growth, and replication within the cytoplasm of eukaryotic host cells (typically endothelial, mortality immediately after import can be high.[9] Once settled in and feeding, they are no more difficult to keep than royal plecs.

All Panaque catfish require much the same thing in captivity. Their main demand is for a mixed diet including green algae, fresh vegetables such as carrots, courgettes, and spinach, and clean bogwood. In the wild, these fish feed almost entirely on wood and algae, and the meaty foods enjoyed by other plecs Hypostomus plecostomus is the scientific name for a type of freshwater tropical Central and South American fish belonging to the family Loricariidae. They are large algae eaters, and to differentiate them from small algae eaters, they are often referred to as plecostomus, often abbreviated as plecos or plecs. They are extremely popular in aquaria are not required. Because they are relatively large for aquarium fish and produce an unusual amount of waste, a big tank with a good filter is essential. Royal panaques at least are adaptable as far as water chemistry goes and though they prefer somewhat soft, slightly acid water conditions they will tolerate hard, alkaline water as well.

In terms of behaviour, Panaque are peaceful and nocturnal, and make good residents in community tanks. Like most of the other armoured catfish, they are territorial, and groups should only be kept in very large tanks.

See also

References

  1. ^ Panaque respirometry paper
  2. ^ a b Armbruster, Jon. "Panaque". http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/res_area/loricariid/fish_key/Panaque/Panaque.html. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
  3. ^ "Genera Reference — Detail: Panaque". http://www.fishbase.org/Eschmeyer/GeneraSummary.cfm?ID=Panaque. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  4. ^ a b c Chockley, Brandon R.; Armbruster, Jonathan W. (May 2002). "Panaque changae, a new species of catfish (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from eastern Peru" (PDF). Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters 13 (1): 81–90. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/res_area/loricariid/fish_key/Panaque_changae.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
  5. ^ Nelson, J. A.; Wubah, D. A.; Whitmer, M. E.; Johnson, E. A.; Stewart, D. J. (1999). "Wood-eating catfishes of the genus Panaque: gut microflora and cellulolytic enzyme activities" (PDF). Journal of Fish Biology 54: 1069–1082. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1111/j.1095-8649.1999.tb00858.x. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1095-8649.1999.tb00858.x.
  6. ^ a b German, D. P. (2009). "Inside the guts of wood-eating catfishes: can they digest wood?" (PDF). Journal of Comparative Physiology B. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1007/s00360-009-0381-z (inactive 2010-03-17). http://www.springerlink.com/content/30179842g1315q6h/.
  7. ^ "PlanetCatfish::Catfish of the Month::May 1999". 2007-05-22. http://www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/cotm.php?article_id=74. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
  8. ^ PlanetCatfish • Frequently Asked Questions
  9. ^ Khoo, L.; Dennis, P. M.; Lewbart, G. A. (1995). "Rickettsia-like organisms in the blue-eyed plecostomus, Panaque suttoni (Eigenmann & Eigenmann)". Journal of Fish Diseases 18: 157–164. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1111/j.1365-2761.1995.tb00273.x.

External links

Categories: Loricariidae | Fishkeeping | Herbivorous animals

 

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