General description: Body moderately elongate, depth of body 23–34% SL, mouth terminal, no sub-mental swelling. Head blunt, about as long as deep, and U-shaped when viewed from above. Upper profile of head slightly convex. Snout very short, only 17-20% HL. Eye small, slightly smaller than length of snout. Caudal densely scaled for its basal third, with obtusely pointed lobes with 12 circumpeduncular scales. The caudal peduncle depth about 50% of its length. Dorsal fin 14–20 rays, anal fin 24–30 rays. Pectoral fin extremely long, extending to the end of the pelvic. Caudal fin scaled at base, tips rounded. Anal fin longer than dorsal, terminating behind end of dorsal. Lateral line with 43–57 scales, 8–12 scale rows between lateral line and dorsal fin, 10–13 between pelvic fin and lateral line. Teeth, bicuspid 5 in upper jaw, 4-9 in lower.
Golden to silver above, silver below. Light pigment speckles above and on the flank.
This species is known in the tropical fish trade as the "baby whale" and commonly imported from Nigeria.
Size: to 130 mm SL.
EOD and electric organ Electrocytes of type Pa (penetrating stalks with anterior innervation). EOD triphasic beginning with moderate-sized initial head-negative phase, P0, followed by a large head-positive phase, P1, followed by a head-negative phase, P2, and a inal head-positive peak "overshoot." The overall duration is 0.38-0.45 msec. The power spectrum peaks between 3,000-4,500 Hz.
Link to EOD waveforms archived in the Macaulay Library
Distribution: Brevimyrus niger has a remarkably wide distribution throughout the Sahelo-Sudanese basins of the Senegal River, the Gambia, the Oueme, the Chad, the Niger and the Nile Rivers. It also occurs in the Cross River of Nigeria and Cameroon.
This species was observed moving in diurnal flocks of 20-30 closely-spaced individuals in a creek near Gambella, Ethiopia (Baro River-White Nile drainage), in much the same way that certain species of Petrocephalus have been observed elsewhere.
to 130 mm SL
The most comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the Mormyridae to date (Lavoué et al., 2003) places Brevimyrus niger as the sister taxon to Hyperopisus bebe and the two together as the sister group to a large clade including species of Marcusenius, Hippopotamyrus, Gnathonemus and Campylomormyrus
Brevimyrus niger has a remarkably wide distribution throughout the Sahelo-Sudanese basins of the Senegal River, the Gambia, the Oueme, the Chad, the Niger and the Nile Rivers. It also occurs in the Cross River of Nigeria and Cameroon. See FishBase occurence records and museum holdings.