Animalia > Chordata > Osteoglossiformes > Gymnarchidae > Gymnarchus > Gymnarchus niloticus

Gymnarchus niloticus (Aba; Aba aba; Frankfish)

Synonyms: Gymnarchus electricus
Language: Arabic; Czech; Dinka, Northeastern; Ewe; Finnish; Fulfulde, Pulaar; German; Hausa; Igbo; Ijo; Jula; Kanuri; Krio; M; Mandarin Chinese; Mòoré; Nuer; Nupe; Shilluk; Sonink; Swedish; Turkana; Wolof; Yoruba; Zande

Wikipedia Abstract

Gymnarchus niloticus – commonly known as the aba, aba aba, frankfish, freshwater rat-tail, poisson-cheval, or African knifefish – is an electric fish, and the only species in the genus Gymnarchus and the family Gymnarchidae within the order Osteoglossiformes. It is found in swamps, lakes and rivers in the Nile, Turkana, Chad, Niger, Volta, Senegal, and Gambia basins.
View Wikipedia Record: Gymnarchus niloticus

Attributes

Migration [1]  Potamodromous

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Omo Strict Natural Reserve Forest Reserve 328086 Nigeria  
Parc National du Niokolo-Koba National Park II 2046878 Senegal  

Prey / Diet

Clarias gariepinus (Sharptoothed catfish)[2]
Oreochromis niloticus (Nile tilapia)[2]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Clarias gariepinus (Sharptoothed catfish)1

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Gymnatrema gymnarchi[3]
Nesolecithus africanus[3]
Phyllodistomum linguale[3]
Raphidascaroides bishaii[3]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Sagua, V.O. (1986) Preliminary observations on the feeding, habits and reproduction biology of Gymnarchus niloticus from Lake Chad. In: 3rd Annual Conference of the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON) , 22-25 February, 1983 , Maiduguri, Nigeria.
♦ 3Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0