Campylomormyrus christyi (Boulenger, 1920)
Species overview
Large fish, moderately deep, snout tubular, moderately long, bent down and slightly backwards, brown with lighter belly, dorsal fin and both lobes of caudal fin with blackish stripes. Size observed: 348 mm SL.
C. christyi(measurements)
Taxonomic description
-Body moderately long and deep, laterally compressed, body depth 24-27 % SL, head, without snout, rather short, 18-20 % SL, snout inclusive 27-31% SL, head depth 18-21 % SL, 72-77 % body depth.
-Outlines of back and belly straight, upper profile of head convex, underside of head concave.
-Snout tapering, distally compressed, 130-160 % postorbital length, somewhat less than depth of head, clearly bent backwards; depth of snout at the end about 1/2 diameter of eye.
-Mouth small, 3-5 % snout length, directed forward / downwards, edge of mouth very far away from anterior nostril, upper jaw well below head.
-Chin with submental swelling, protruding the mouth opening. Thin barbel present, about 2/3 diameter of eye in length.
-Teeth small, truncate, 5/5.
-Nostrils separate, both below the eye at a distance of nearly the diameter of the eye; anterior nostril circular, posterior oval.
-Eye diameter 18-20 % head length without snout.
-Opercular cleft short, 42-49 % head depth, S-shaped.
-Dorsal fin 32-33 fin-rays, base of D 27-29 % SL, anal fin 34-35, base of A 29-31 % SL; D originating posterior to A, ending anterior to end of A; in both fins the first rays are considerably longer than the rest. Predorsal length 56-58 % SL, preanal length 51-54 % SL. Base of pectoral fin close to and underneath the opercular cleft, pointed, extending to the end of pelvic fin. V is closer to P than to A.
-Caudal fin pointed, scaled lobes short, membranes rather long, the upper lobe may be slightly longer than the lower one. 75-80 scales in lateral line, 12 around caudal peduncle.
-Caudal peduncle moderately long, 17-21 % SL, its depth 5-6 % SL, 23-32 % its length.
-Coloration »Back dark brown, silvery-white below: countershaded, an angular brighter band on either side of the back, with its peak below the origin of D, in juveniles probably a dark rhomb between D and A, of which the markings in larger fish are remainders. D with yellowish border, followed by a blackish brown band which at the rest of the fin is only to be seen along the base; in A this marking is less expressed.
-Caudal fin lighter margins, followed by a dark band, distal ends of its fin-rays clear.
Type locality
»Lépoldville«, now Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Distribution
Congo basin.