AquaticRepublic.com - Phreatobius sp. (1) (Phreatobiidae) All Fishes

Habitat: Sodden leaf litter

All Fishes Data Sheet
Scientific Name	Phreatobius sp. (1)
Common Name	Land Catfish
Pronunciation	fray toe bee uss
Etymology	From the Greek phrear, phreat- meaning ''well'' or ''spring''.
Species Information
Size	30mm or 1.2" SL. Find near, nearer or same sized spp.
Identification	Not surprisingly this species has yet to be imported as an aquarium fish. They are reportedly rare in the wild but this is more likely because of insufficient distribution data, unimportance to the local people and the small size of the fish than true scarcity.
Sexing	Unknown
General Remarks	It is labelled Phreatobius walkeri in the Guinness book of records (GBOR), but this is a ''nomen nudum'' (literally a naked name) which means that this name is not scientifically valid and indeed cannot be used in future. It is stated within the GBOR that, ''this is the only known fish in the world that solely lives on land. Other fish species (including some other catfish) can spend some of their time on land, but not all their time''. From a ''certain point of view'', this makes this catfish the ''newest fish on land''! In truth this isn't quite right - it's not DRY land. This Phraetobius is only and always found within the sodden leaf litter banks by the stream edges. As you can see it is a small, wormlike catfish and was found in the middle of the 1980s in Brazil. This species lives a full life on ''land'' among fallen leaves near the river. It is reported that if it is returned to water, it will quickly jump out of it again, but this seems unlikely. This fish is currently placed in the Heptapteridae family but has many similarities with the Trichomycteridae. Its ''halfway house'' characteristics might even merit the creation of a new catfish family. Many authors consider this genus a junior synonym of Heptapterus.
Habitat Information
Distribution	Brazil
Husbandry Information
Breeding	Unreported.
Breeding Reports	There is no breeding report.
Further Information
Registered Keepers	There is no registered keeper.
Wishlists	Love this species? Click the heart to add it to your wish list. There is no wish to keep this species.
Spotters	Spotted this species somewhere? Click the binoculars! There is no record of this fish being seen.
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	Look up P. sp. (1) on PlanetCatfish.com
	LFS label creator
Last Update	2004 Dec 20 00:00 (species record created: 2001 Jul 07 00:00)