🐟 Honeycomb Tatia Catfish (Centromochlus perugiae)
South American Woodcat • Unique Internal Fertilization • Bold Honeycomb Pattern
 
📋 The Honeycomb Tatia Catfish, also called the Honeycomb Driftwood Catfish or Oil Catfish, is a small, strikingly patterned "woodcat" with a bold black-and-cream honeycomb design, native to swift-flowing rivers in Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. It was classified as Tatia perugiae until a 1998 reclassification moved it to Centromochlus, and the older name is still widely used.
It belongs to Auchenipteridae, the "driftwood catfish" family, which is unique among catfish for internal fertilization: males have a modified anal fin that works much like a livebearer's gonopodium, used to inseminate the female directly before she lays her eggs a day or two later in a cave or crevice. It's peaceful and gregarious, happiest in a group of five or more, spending daylight hours hidden in driftwood and coming out at night, often drawn out quickly by the scent of bloodworms.
 
💡 Highlights
🧡 Honeycomb Pattern: Bold black-and-cream body markings
🧬 Unique Reproduction: Internal fertilization, unlike almost all other catfish
🌙 Nocturnal Woodcat: Active mainly at night
👥 Social: Happiest in a group of five or more
💧 Loves Clean, Flowing Water: Stable, well-filtered water suits it best