Turkestan catfish (Glyptosternon reticulatum - G.osсhanini), Syr Darya river, Uzbekistan 16.03.2025

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Life-on-earth.ru popular science project

Turkestan catfish (Glyptosternon reticulatum)
Oshanin catfish (Glyptosternon osсhanini) by another taxonomy (see the remarks below)
Glyptosterninae subfamily
Sisoridae family
Siluriformes order (Catfishes)


The beginning of the Syr Darya river, less than 1 km downstream from the confluence of the Kara Darya and Naryn rivers
Namangan Province, Fergana Valley
Uzbekistan
16.03.2025



The Turkestan catfish (Glyptosternon reticulatum) were caught during general ecological monitoring of the Syr Darya river within the Search for the lost Syr Darya shovelnose sturgeon (Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi) expedition. The presence of such a sophisticated fish as Glyptosternon reticulatum shows that this habitat is of good ecological condition and suitable for the Syr Darya shovelnose sturgeon (Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi) as well.

Search for the lost Syr Darya shovelnose sturgeon (Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi)
was initialed by Re:wild within its search for lost species effort

You may find info on the first expedition in search for the Syr Darya shovelnose sturgeon to the middle stream of the Syr Darya river that occured in 2019 on the webpage of the Life-on-earth.ru popular science project:


and additional info on the Syr Darya shovelnose on another webpage:


The second expedition in search for the Syr Darya shovelnose sturgeon took place from Mrach 12 to March 23, 2025 in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and was aimed at environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling along the Syr Darya river and some of its tributaries from the middle stream up to the upper stream as well as at general ecological monitoring of the river for its current suitability as the habitat for such sophisticated fish as the Syr Darya shovelnose sturgeon.

The expedition participants:

Dr. Bernie Kuhaida, expedition leader, aquatic conservation biologist, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute


Dr. David Neely, associate research scientist, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute


Christian Swartzbaugh, University of Georgia PhD candidate working with Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute

Akbarjon Rozimov, PhD candidate, Fish Evolution and Genomics Group, Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Institute of Zoology, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Jobir Sobirov, head of Ichthyology and hydrobiology laboratory, Institute of Zoology, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Sirojiddin Namozov, PhD candidate, Ichthyology and hybrobiology laboratory, Institute of Zoology, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Alexey Chernyak, Eurasian Regional Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EARAZA), curator of the Rarest Eurasian Sturgeon Species Conservation Programme


eDNA samples are being analysed by Dr. Laura Weldon, The eDNA Concultancy


Glyptosternon reticulatum is also recognized by some authorities as Glyptosternon oschanini (Herzenstein, 1889 (Oshanin catfish) but this has still been considered a synonym of Glyptosternon reticulatum by FishBase


In 2017 a group of authors suggested to separate Turkestan catfish ihabiting the Syr Darya river drainage basin from Glyptosternon reticulatum as a separate species Glyptosternon oschanini (A century in synonymy: molecular and morphological evidence for the revalidation of Glyptosternon osсhanini (Herzenstein, 1889) (Actinopterygii: Sisoridae) - Ryan J. Thoni, Evgeniy Simonov, Oleg Artaev, Shaigul Asylbaeva, Sergek Uulu Aibek, Boris A. Levin - Zootaxa 4277 (3): 435–442)