Pollimyrus isidori, Elephant Fish : aquarium

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Pollimyrus isidori (Valenciennes, 1847)

Elephant Fish
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Pollimyrus isidori
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Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Osteoglossiformes (Bony tongues) > Mormyridae (Elephantfishes)
Etymology: Pollimyrus: Because of Dr. Max Poll, ichthyologist + Greek, myros, -ou = the male of the morey eel.
More on author: Valenciennes.

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

Freshwater; demersal; pH range: 6.0 - 8.0; dH range: 5 - 19; potamodromous (Ref. 51243). Tropical; 22°C - 24°C (Ref. 12468)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Africa: Senegal (Ref. 2915), Gambia, middle Niger (Ref. 3203) including the Benue (Ref. 2915), Volta and Chad basins, coastal rivers of Côte d'Ivoire (Sassandra, Bandama, Mé) and the Nile (Ref. 3203). Subspecies Pollimyrus isidori fasciaticeps and Pollimyrus isidori osborni are restricted to the Congo river basin (Ref. 3203).

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm 6.5  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 10.3 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 57961); max. published weight: 7.00 g (Ref. 3799)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 17-22; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 21 - 27. Body depth 2.8-4.2 x SL. Sokomo and Comoe forms longer with SL/Depth ratio 3-4. Head 3.8-5.0 x SL. Eye diameter 3.3-6.4 x head length. Dorsal origin slightly behind anal fin origin. Pectorals slightly shorter or equal to head length, 2-3 x longer than pelvic fins, its posterior end reaching past origin of pelvic fins. Caudal peduncle height 2.3-3.9 x of its length, 12.3-20.6 x SL. Middle reaches fish silvery in color with lots of small spots on sides and head, higher reaches fish darker with darker and fewer spots.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Occupies floodplain pools in Sudd. Feeds on mud, vegetable debris and small invertebrates (Ref. 28714). Affinities: only to P. adspersus, morphologically similar; distinguished through scales on caudal peduncle, dorsal and anal fin rays and body coloration. Generates electric organ discharge (EOD) of short duration (0.08 ms) that seems to correlate with aggregative behavior of the species (Ref. 10460; 10601). During the breeding season, males build nests and while patrolling their territory sporadically emit EODs at a mean rate of 18 Hz. Participating females, on the other hand, discharge at a fairly regular rate (8-11 Hz) and this has been shown to play a role in sex recognition during courtship and spawning. Male and female EOD waveforms also differ in the amplitude ratio of the first and third phase (Ref. 10764). Also produce natural sounds ('grunts', 'moans', 'growl', etc.) at different phases of courtship, nesting and territorial defense (Ref. 10832). A fractional spawner; females able to spawn up to 26 times in the course of one reproductive cycle, laying about 125 eggs per spawning episode. Larval electric organ situated in the deep lateral musculature; that of adults in the caudal peduncle (Ref. 10605).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

30-200 eggs are spawned evey 5-8 days. Male builds nest and tends eggs and larvae. Eggs hatch after 4 days and feed after 12 days.

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Bigorne, R., 1990. Mormyridae. p. 122-184. In C. Lévêque, D. Paugy and G.G. Teugels (eds.) Faune des poissons d'eaux saumâtres d'Afrique de l'Ouest. tome 1. Faune Trop. 28. Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, and ORSTOM, Paris. (Ref. 2915)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 03 November 2019

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: of no interest; aquarium: commercial
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

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Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | Public aquariums | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.5000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.01230 (0.00669 - 0.02263), b=2.80 (2.64 - 2.96), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & (Sub)family-body (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  2.6   ±0.22 se; based on food items.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (tm=0.5).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low vulnerability (10 of 100).
Nutrients (Ref. 124155):  Calcium = 492 [244, 1,584] mg/100g; Iron = 3.22 [1.38, 7.00] mg/100g; Protein = 17.3 [14.8, 19.8] %; Omega3 = 0.606 [0.206, 1.757] g/100g; Selenium = 91.2 [29.7, 293.3] μg/100g; VitaminA = 26.9 [8.8, 87.6] μg/100g; Zinc = 3.37 [1.98, 7.02] mg/100g (wet weight);