A new species of claroteid catfish has been described from Lake Tanganyika in the latest issue of the journal Copeia.
Named Chrysichthys acsiorum after the All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI, a research initiative to catalogue and describe the catfishes of the world) by Michael Hardman, the new species is known only from the type locality, at a depth of approximately 30 metres in Lake Tanganyika, near the village of Kajaga in Burundi.
Chrysichthys acsiorum can be distinguished from other members of the genus in having a combination of: a weakly expressed or absent postcleithral process, upper jaw extending beyond the lower jaw, 14"16 rakers on the first gill arch, toothplates of the premaxillae and palate with small and tightly packed teeth, vomerine toothplates narrower than those on the pterygoids, supraoccipital broad and contacting the predorsal plate, body width at pectoral-fin insertions 4.9"5.3 times in standard length, interorbital width contained 3.0"4.1 times in head length, distance between posterior nares contained 4.0"4.8 times in head length, and maxillary barbel contained 4.1"5.5 times in standard length.
For more information, see the paper: Hardman, M (2008) A new species of catfish genus Chrysichthys from Lake Tanganyika (Siluriformes: Claroteidae). Copeia 2008, pp. 43"56.