Cranoglanis


Cranoglanis is the only genus of armorhead catfishes.

Taxonomy

Cranoglanis bouderius was first described as Bagrus bouderius in 1846 by John Richardson based on a Chinese watercolor painting. Wilhelm Peters later described Cranoglanis along with a new species, Cranoglanis sinensis. Otto Koller described a new species, Pseudotropichthys multiradiatus. George Myers synonymized Pseudotropichthys with Cranoglanis, as well as described the family Cranoglanididae. Jayaram synonymized C. multiradiatus and C. sinensis under C. bouderius. More recently, C. bouderius and C. multiradiatus have been treated as separate species. C. henrici, described by Léon Vaillant in 1893, is often overlooked, but is a valid species.
In 2005, Cranoglanis had been considered a monotypic genus by some, with C. bouderius as the only valid species.
The Cranoglanididae are closely related to the North American family Ictaluridae. These two families are sister taxa in the superfamily Ictaluroidea.

Species

The five currently recognized species in this genus are:
  • Cranoglanis bouderius
  • Cranoglanis caolangensis V. H. Nguyễn, 2005
  • Cranoglanis henrici
  • Cranoglanis multiradiatus
  • Cranoglanis songhongensis V. H. Nguyễn, 2005

    Distribution and habitat

These fish are found in large freshwater rivers in China and Vietnam.

Appearance and anatomy

These fish have short dorsal fins. The caudal fins are deeply forked. The eyes are large. Their bodies are scaleless, though rough, bony plates are located on the tops of their heads. These fish have four pairs of barbels.