Petrocephalus sauvagii Boulenger, 1887
Species overview
Medium sized fish, body moderately short and deep, head slightly shorter than depth of body, slightly longer than deep. Snout truncate, mouth inferior. Head with three aggregations, »rosettes«, of cutaneous sensory organs. Caudal peduncle short, moderately deep. Silvery with dark markings. Size observed: 166 mm SL.
P. sauvagii(measurements)
Taxonomic description
-Body moderately short and deep, strongly laterally compressed, depth of body 29-34 % SL, greatest depth at origin of anal fin. Length of head 27-31 % SL; depth of head 25-30 % SL, 77-87 % depth of body.
-Outline of back rather straight between dorsal fin and opercular cleft; upper profile of head rather straight to slightly concave, underside of head slightly convex; outline of belly slightly curved; base of unpaired fins running steeply to caudal peduncle.
-Snout short, 12-16 % length of head, 20-25 % postorbital length.
-Mouth 22-29 % length of head, inferior, its edge below centre of eye, upper jaw on a level above upper edge of origin of pectoral fin.
-Chin without inconspicuous.
-Teeth notched, 17-24/29-35.
-Nostrils closely together, oval-shaped, on a level with lower rim of lens.
-Eye diameter 17-21 % length of head, 27-33 % postorbital length. Three rosettes, aggregations of electrorecpetors, on the head.
-Opercular cleft strongly curved, its posterior margin well behind base of pectoral fin, 39-48 % length of head, 41-51 % depth of head.
-Dorsal fin 26-28 fin-rays, base of D 20-23 % SL, anal fin 34-36 rays, base of A 27-32 % SL, origin of D posterior to origin of A, end of D well anterior to end of A; predorsal length 59-63 % SL, preanal length 56-61 % SL.
-Pectoral fin pointed, length, extending to middle or 2/3 the length of pelvic fin. V is well closer to P than to A.
-Caudal fin obtusely pointed, scaled part rounded, short. 40-42 scales in lateral line; 10-12 round caudal peduncle.
-Caudal peduncle 15-21% SL, its depth 5-6 % SL, 27-35 % its length.
-Coloration »Plumbeous above, silvery white below; a round blackish spot sometimes present below origin of dorsal«. - »Silvery with the first rays of dorsal fin marked dark. A dark, round spot exists below the dorsal without being in contact with it«.
Type locality
»? in the creeks of the Lower Congo and the tributary streams«. Democratic Republic of Congo.
Distribution
»Originally described from the Congo basin it also has been reported from the Cameroon and the Niger delta; it probably also occurs all over the coastal areas of Nigeria«.