Golden Cave Catfish

Golden Cave Catfish (Clarias cavernicola)
Source: https://alchetron.com

The Golden Cave Catfish (Clarias cavernicola) are only found in Aigumas Cave, North Otavi, Namibia. They live in the underground caves in complete darkness. These caves are much deeper, that even with the 90 m dive, the divers couldn't find the bottom of these caves. Despite of the depth of these caves, this Golden Cave Catfish live in the water column up to 15 m depth. 

Two professional divers preparing to descend to 40 m to start the visual count survey for Clarias
cavernicola.
Source: Jacobs et al., 2019

These Golden Cave Catfish are lack of their natural dark colour pigmentation which makes their colour as  Gold. They usually grow up to about 17 cm long.  They have small eyes but they are covered with skin, which makes them blind. The female usually produce 50 eggs and their fertilization is external. 

Golden Cave Catfish (Clarias cavernicola)
Source: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

They feed on the invertebrates, falling insects and guano from bats. They live in the water column about 15 m depth range where they can feed on the available feed, which makes them vulnerable for the changes of ground water level. 

The researches estimated that there are only 150-200 individuals in the Golden Cave Catfish population. This extremely rare Catfish species are endangered restricted only to Aigumas Cave, North Otavi, Namibia. 

Written by : Isuru Umesha

Sources:

Jacobs, F., Hay, C., Jacobs, G. and Næsje, T.F. 2019. A baseline study of the critically endangered cave-dwelling catfish Clarias cavernicola in Namibia. Report no. MFMR-RIIWS1-2019-06-30.

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www.conservationnamibia.com