Heteropneustes fossilis ( Bloch, 1794 )

Saad, Adib, Çiçek, Erdoğan, Esmaeili, Hamid Reza, Fricke, Ronald, Sungur, Sevil & Eagderi, Soheil, 2023, Freshwater fishes of Syria: a revised and updated annotated checklist- 2023, Zootaxa 5350 (1), pp. 1-62 : 36

Heteropneustes fossilis ( Bloch, 1794) [I]—Singee; Sallour

Taxonomy. Original description: Silurus fossilis Bloch, 1794: 46 , pl. 370, fig. 2 [ Tranquebar ( Tharangambadi), India; lectotype: ZMB 3074; lectotype selected by Paepke (1999: 87)].—Syrian synonyms: None.—Revisions: Diogo et al. (2003: 380); Ratmuangkhwang et al. (2014: 82).—Illustration: Bloch (1794: 46, pl. 370, fig. 2).

Status in Syria. First record from Syria by Ali et al. (2015: 1).—Syrian material: MNHN, MSL.

Distribution and habitat. Distribution in Syria: Euphrates River, Khbur River.—Distribution in River Basin: 1- Dajleh & Khabour, 2-Euphrates & Aleppo.—General distribution: South Asia: Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and China Introduced in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.— Distribution in Ecoregion: 441-Lower Tigris & Euphrates, 442-Upper Tigris & Euphrates.—Habitat: This species inhabits freshwater and, rarely, brackish waters as well. This is primarily a fish of ponds, ditches, creeks, swamps, and marshes, but it is sometimes found in muddy rivers. Its air-breathing apparatus enables it to exist in almost any kind of water quality. Generally, during the dry season, Heteropneustes fossilis lives in semi-liquid and semi-dry mud, and, even when the mud dries, they take their bodies to the bottom of fissures and crevices formed by the cracking mud. Fertilized eggs are adhesive, demersal, and spherical in form. In bodies of water, this species will move and feed in schools that are active through the day and night, and normally it occupies the lower quarter of the water column. Freshwater.

Economic importance. Commercially important.

Reasons of introduction. Unknown: Inadvertently introduced by transboundary waterways for no known reason or method.

Conservation. Not relevant (introduced species).