Ariopsis guatemalensis
Widehead Sea Catfish
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Siluriformes (Catfishes)
Ariidae (Sea Catfishes)
Ariopsis
Ariopsis guatemalensis (Widehead Sea Catfish)
Description
This species account was compiled from
FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.)
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Characters
Body shape: fusiform / normal. This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following characters: mesethmoid median portion wide, medial notch of mesethmoid large and shallow mouth wide 13.0-15.2% SL; cephalic shield at frontal area wide, 10.0-11.5% SL; cephalic shield at lateral ethmoid area wide 14.3-15.3% SL; distance between anterior nostrils wide 7.1-8.6% SL; distance between posterior nostrils wide 7.2-8.7% SL; osseous medial groove absent; fleshy medial groove of neurocranium conspicuous or inconspicuous, but never surpassing posterior margin of eyes; lateral margin of sphenotic straight, as wide medially as anteriorly; pterotic lateral margin markedly convex, sometimes angled; pectoral spine long 18.2-20.5% SL; external posterior branch of lateral ethmoid columnar and thin; fenestra delimited by mesethmoid and lateral ethmoid conspicuous (Ref. 116660).
Distribution
Eastern Pacific: Mexico,(from the mouth of Colorado River, Sonora) to Costa Rica.
Habitat Associations
Freshwater, brackish, marine. demersal. depth range 0-20 m.
Biology
Abundant in marine and brackish waters (Ref. 9271). Also enters freshwater (Ref. 36880).
Max length: 54.0 cm TL.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2007-05-22. Resilience: Very low (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial.
References
Love, M.S., C.W. Mecklenburg, T.A. Mecklenburg and L.K. Thorsteinson (2005) Resource inventory of marine and estuarine fishes of the West Coast and Alaska: A checklist of North Pacific and Arctic Ocean species from Baja California to the Alaska-Yukon border. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Seattle, Washington, 98104.
Bautista-Romero, J.J., S.S. González-Peláez, L. Campos-Dávila and D.B. Lluch-Cota (2012) Length-weight relationship of wild fish captured at the mouth of Río Verde, Oaxaca, Mexico and connected lagoons (Miniyua, El Espejo, Chacahua and Pastoría). J. Appl. Ichthyol. 28:269-271. DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0426.2011.01914.x
Marceniuk, A.P., A.P. Acero, R. Cooke and R. Betancur-R (2017) Taxonomic revision of the new world genus Ariopsis Gill (Siluriformes: Ariidae), with description of two new species. Zootaxa 4290(1):1-42.
Comments On Ariopsis guatemalensis