Cetopsis plumbea

Cetopsis plumbea
Photos by Britt Griswold
Reproduced from Vari, Ferraris and de Pinna (2005).

Cetopsis plumbea Steindachner, 1882

Identification: Cetopsis plumbea can be distinguished from all of its congeners by the combination of the presence of an eye, the conical teeth on the vomer and dentary, the rounded posterior nares which is distinctly separated from the contralateral nares by a distance greater than the width of the posterior nares, the wide mouth, the width of which is one-half of HL, the absence of a dark humeral spot, the absence of a posteriorly-rounded, variably-developed, bilobed patch of dark pigmentation at the base of the caudal fin, the absence of a pattern of dark pigmentation across the caudal fin other than for along its distal margin, the presence of approximately eye-size, dark spots on the lateral surface of the body, the presence of dark chromatophores along the anterior and lateral margins of the snout, the absence of dark pigmentation along the distal portions of the pectoral and anal fins, and the possession of 10 to 14 precaudal vertebrae and 45 to 50 total vertebrae. Maximum size: 136 mm SL.

Range: Cetopsis plumbea occurs in the western portions of the Amazon basin in eastern Ecuador, southeastern Peru, and northeastern Bolivia.

Information from Vari, R. P., C. J. Ferraris Jr. & M. C. C. de Pinna. 2005. The Neotropical whale catfishes (Siluriformes: Cetopsidae: Cetopsinae), a revisionary study. Neotropical Ichthyology 3:127-238.

Cetopsis plumbea map
Distribution Map