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Teleostei (teleosts) > Siluriformes (Catfishes) > Trichomycteridae (Pencil or parasitic catfishes) > Vandelliinae
Etymology:

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; benthopelagic. Tropical

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South America: Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay River basins.

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: L_m ? range ? - ? cm
Max length : 2.8 cm NG male/unsexed; (Ref. 39970)

Found to exhibit parasitic traits (Ref. 6868). Inhabits rivers with sandy to muddy bottom. Forages both during the day and at night seeks the gill chambers of larger fishes, especially catfishes. Enters and leaves the gill chamber during the host's ventilating movements: feeds on blood drawn from the gill filaments and may stay in the gill chamber for 1-3 min; when gorged with blood, moves to the bottom and buries itself in the sand. A single large catfish tethered on the river bank may feed thousand of these parasitic catfish over a period of up to 6 hours. Two females, 1.8 cm TL, caught in January (wet season) had about 150 mature oocytes each, and one male 2.0 cm TL had well-developed testes. Large numbers of this fish may kill fishes tethered by fishermen (Ref. 40386).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturities | Reproduction | Spawnings | Egg(s) | Fecundities | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Pinna, Mário de | Collaborators

Burgess, W.E., 1989. An atlas of freshwater and marine catfishes. A preliminary survey of the Siluriformes. T.F.H. Publications, Inc., Neptune City, New Jersey (USA). 784 p. (Ref. 6868)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 08 December 2020

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Harmless

Human uses

FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

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Trophic ecology
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Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804): PD₅₀ = 0.7500 [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].

Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00389 (0.00180 - 0.00842), b=3.12 (2.94 - 3.30), in cm total length, based on all LWR estimates for this body shape (Ref. 93245).

Trophic level (Ref. 69278): 3.4 ±0.6 se; based on size and trophs of closest relatives

Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153): Low vulnerability (10 of 100).

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