NEWS102
28
ChineseHighfinBandedSharks,Myxocyprinus asiaticus,arealreadyveryattractiveas juveniles.
All photos:FrankSchäfer
irst and foremost:
Myxocyprinus
isn’t a
member
of
the
carp
family
(Cyprinidae),but is insteadamemberof the
family Catostomidae (popular name
suckers). This in turn is misleading, as the
Catostomidae are a sister group to the
loaches (there are several families among
F
The alert visitor to aquarium stores will regularly encounter a uniquely
beautiful fish labeled
Myxocyprinus asiaticus
or the Chinese Highfin
Banded Shark. But there is hardly any information at all on these unique
creatures in theaquariumhobby literature.…..
TheChineseHighfinBanded
Shark -
mysteriousandbeautiful
byWolfgangLöll
the loaches and to list them all herewould
be going too far) and thus only very
distantly related to thecarps.
Lotsof friends,aRussianandaChinese
The Catostomidae currently contains
around 13 genera with a total of 68-80
species (the sources contradict one
another).Apart fromonespeciestheyareall
found in North America (seen from an
Info
AgiganticChineseHighfin
BandedShark
On the Internet at
peopledaily.com.cn/200705/10/eng200
70510_373479.html# there are photos
of a full-grown male
Myxocyprinus
asiaticus
. This fish originated from the
Jialing River, and was caught at
Langzhong in the south-west of the
province of Sichuan (Szechuan).
Unfortunatelywewereunabletoobtain
permissiontoreproducethephotosand
hence cannot display them here. The
largest Chinese Highfin Banded Shark
measured to date was 125.9 cm long
andweighed45.86pounds.
Gardenpond
