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Dorsal spines (total): 2-2; Dorsal soft rays (total): 4-5; Anal spines: 0-0; Anal soft rays: 9-12; Vertebrae: 36-38. Diagnosis: This species is generally more pallid and less conspicuously marked than other species of Zaireichthys (Ref. 86935). It differs from Zaireichthys conspicuus, Z. kunenensis, Z. lacustris and Z. maravensis in possessing a narrow premaxillary tooth patch, less than 40% of the mouth width; from Z. monomotapa by the smaller number of rays in the dorsal fin, 4-5 soft rays vs. 5-6), pectoral fins, 5-7 vs. 7-8, and caudal fin, 9-13 vs. 14-16; from Z. kavangoensis in colour pattern (Ref. 86935).
Description: Body moderately slender; lateral line moderate, usually ending between the level of the vent and the middle of the anal fin (Ref. 86935). Head with moderately broad supraoccipital process; snout bluntly rounded, not protruding much beyond mouth; eyes moderate; mouth narrow, less than half head width; barbels long and slender, the maxillary barbel reaching beyond the base of the pectoral fin (Ref. 86935). Dorsal fin II, 4-5; adipose fin long, sometimes closely approaching the first procurrent rays of the caudal; caudal fin slightly emarginate, with the lower lobe a little longer than the upper and with 9-13 branched rays, usually with 5 in the upper lobe and 6 in the lower; anal fin with 9-12 rays, of which the first 4-7, usually 5, are simple; pectoral fins with 5-7, usually 6, the spine bearing 5-8 slender barbs (Ref. 86935). Premaxillary tooth patch sub-rectangular; branchiostegal rays 6-8 (Ref. 86935). Vertebrae 36-38 plus the ural complex, the first haemal spine on the 14th-15th; 5-6 pairs of ribs, parapophyses often forked basally; humeral process usually ending nearer the level of the first dorsal spine than of supraoccipital process (Ref. 86935).
Colouration: In life almost transparent (Ref. 86935). Preserved usually very pale yellow, with a few minute black spots scattered irregularly over the body; a few specimens are darker, but rarely show a definite pattern except for a series of darker patches along the back, the first at the base of the dorsal, and an irregular darker line mid-laterally; the dark individuals can be readily distinguished from the other members of the genus by the shape of the melanophores, which are unusually large and rectangular in shape (Ref. 86935). |
