Neosilurus mollespiculum Allen & Feinberg, 1998
Soft-spined catfish

Family:  Plotosidae (Eeltail catfishes)
Max. size:  44 cm SL (male/unsexed); 41 cm SL (female)
Environment:  demersal; freshwater
Distribution:  Oceania: Burdekin River system, northeastern Queensland, Australia.
Diagnosis:   
Biology:  Inhabits rocky pools in main river channels and larger creeks. Omnivorous (Ref. 44894). Stomach contents of fish less than 10 cm SL were mainly insects and their larvae, primarily chironomid larvae, ephemeropterans, and trichopterans; small amounts of odonates, unidentified dipterans, ostracods, and filamentous algae. Fish larger than 10 cm mainly ingested trichopterans, ostracods, and chironomids with some amounts of dipterans, odonates, aquatic coleopterans, corixids, Macrobrachium, bivalves, filamentous algae, and detritus (Ref. 27663). Collection of specimens with ripe and recently spent gonads in November suggests that breeding occurs at the commencement of the wet season (Ref. 44894).
IUCN Red List Status: Vulnerable (VU); Date assessed: 13 February 2019 (B1ab(v)+2ab(v)) Ref. (130435)
Threat to humans:  harmless


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