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SOME STRANGE CATFISH TYPES Species round in South America Wear Shell Like Students of fish life are interested in the catfish which has developed a remarkable number of dif ¬ ferent andtpecnliar forms The armored catfish which is found in streams in South America some ¬ times finds its way into the collection of aquarists In thisCityv iNaJure has generously provided it with a shellIike armor to protect it against the attacks of larger and stronger fishes fishesThe The rivers of South America John T Nichols head of the department of ichthyology of the Ameri ¬ can Museum said abound in catfishes of almost every conceivable size and form Many bear a marked semblance to the whiskered hornedpout familiar to every country boy in the north who goes fishing but others are different They arc encased in an armature of bony plates somewhat in the manner of an armadillo or of the knights of old These armored catfish belong to two families which are the Callichthids and the Lorlcarids In the former thci sides of the body are covered by two longitudinal scries of plates and in the latter the body isimoroor less completely covered with several scries of plates arranged comparatively irregularly Tlie mouth Is small on the under surface of the head somewhat suckerlike in appearance but with small teeth teethThe The two comon types of tlis family are Plecos tomiis with big head something like that of a sea robin and Loricaria which is elongate its tail portion much flattened In some species of Ple costomus the scutes are keeled in others they arc smooth Certain Loricarids especially those found in rushing mountain torrents have a smooth skin without armor and it is also in this family that the most remarkable armored forms occur One of these is Farrowells FarrowellsCatfish Catfish are most ahundant and are found in greatest variety in Soiith America and in Africa The probabilities are th at they entered those two southern continents from the north but finding few fishes to compete with them in the fresh waer there they developed a remarkable number of dif ¬ ferent and peculiar forms in order to take advan ¬ tage of every aspect of their environment In Africa a catfish was evolved which protects it ¬ self by giving a powerful electric shock In South America we have no such electric catfish its place in a sense being taken by an electric eel but there are many species of catfish protected by bony plates whjch form a sort of armor Of our local catfishes all are of one type similar to horned pout
