''Synodontis afrofischeri'', known as Fischer's Victoria squeaker, the marbled Victoria squeaker, Fischer's catfish, or the Victoria synodontis, is a species of

upside-down catfish The name upside-down catfish is most commonly used by aquarists to refer to the mochokid catfish '' Synodontis nigriventris'' alternately known to ichthyologists as the blotched upside-down catfish or false upside-down catfish. However, a number ...

native to

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

and

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. It was first described by German zoologist

Franz Martin Hilgendorf Franz Martin Hilgendorf (5 December 1839 – 5 July 1904) was a German zoologist and paleontologist. Hilgendorf's research on fossil snails from the Steinheim crater in the early 1860s became a palaeontological evidence for the theory of ...

in 1888, based upon a

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

discovered in

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''"afrofischeri"'' is in honor of the German researcher Dr.

Gustav Fischer Gustav Fischer may refer to: * Gustav Fischer (explorer) (1848–1886), German explorer of Africa * Gustav Fischer (equestrian) Gustav Fischer (8 November 1915 – 22 November 1990) was a Switzerland, Swiss Equestrian at the Summer Olympics, ...

, a German explorer of Africa.

Description

The body of the fish is a marbled yellowish brown, although the amount of marbling varies between individuals, with some a uniform brown. The fish has a dark to black band that traverses from the eye to the mouth, and two irregular light vertical bands on either side of the adipose fin. Juveniles have a very similar appearance to juvenile '' S. fuelleborni'' juveniles. Like other members of the genus, this fish has a humeral process, which is a bony spike that is attached to a hardened head cap on the fish and can be seen extending beyond the gill opening. The first ray of the dorsal fin and the pectoral fins have a hardened first ray which is serrated. The caudal fin is forked. It has short, cone-shaped teeth in the upper jaw. In the lower jaw, the teeth are s-shaped and movable. The fish has one pair of maxillary barbels of varying length, extending far beyond the operculum, and two pairs of mandibular barbels that are often branched. This species grows to a maximum known length of TL

Habitat

In the wild, the species inhabits tropical waters with a temperature range of , a pH of 6.0 – 8.0, and dH range of 5-25. It is found at depths ranging from , usually . It is found in

, Lake Nagubago, the

Victoria Nile The White Nile ( ') is a river in Africa, the minor of the two main tributary, tributaries of the Nile, the larger being the Blue Nile. The name "White" comes from the clay sediment carried in the water that changes the water to a pale color. ...

Lake Kyoga Lake Kyoga or Lake Kioga (literally 'the place of bathing' in Runyoro language) is a large shallow lake in Uganda, about in area and at an elevation of 1,033 metres. The Victoria Nile flows through the lake on its way from Lake Victoria to Lake ...

, the

Kagera River The Kagera River, also known as Akagera River, or Alexandra Nile, is an East African river, forming part of the upper headwaters of the Nile and carrying water from its most distant source.Stanley, H.M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: ...

Lake Ihema Lake Ihema is a lake in the east of Rwanda, at the border with Tanzania. The lake lies within the marshland of the Kagera River in which it empties via a very short channel. With an area of , it is the largest lake entirely in Rwanda. Consideri ...

, the

Malagarasi River The Malagarasi River is a river in western Tanzania, flowing through Kigoma Region, although one of its tributaries comes from southeastern Burundi. The river also forms the western border of Tabora Region, the southern border of Kagera Region and ...

and possibly in the

Kingani River HMS ''Fifi'' was an armed screw steamer, captured from the Germans by Royal Navy units during the Battle for Lake Tanganyika, and used to support Anglo-Belgian operations on the lake and its surrounding areas. She had previously been operated by ...

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3317456 afrofischeri Freshwater fish of Kenya Freshwater fish of Tanzania Fish of Rwanda Fish of Uganda Catfish of Africa Fish described in 1888 Taxa named by Franz Martin Hilgendorf Taxonomy articles created by Polbot