Marcusenius moorii (Günther, 1867)

From Boden et al. (1997)

Diagnosis. Dorsal-fin origin situated behind anal-fin origin. Dorsal fin ends before anal fin. Dorsal fin pointed and clearly concave. Its height shorter than its length. Dorsal-fin rays are 17-26 and 24-33 anal-fin rays. Lateral-line scales 37-45. If the dark transversal band between dorsal and anal fin is visible, it is covered by only two lateral-line scales. Scales between dorsal-fin origin and anal-fin origin are 14-20.

Description. Teeth bicuspid, 5 in upper jaw, 6 in lower jaw. Submental swelling rounded, not reaching the eye margin. Snout rounded and slightly blunt. Anterior nostril in the middle between anterior tip of snout and eye, or a little closer to the eye. Posterior nostril 0·25 the distance from the eye. Eye diameter 36-74% of snout length. Preanal distance generally shorter than predorsal distance. Anal-fin base longer than dorsal. Dorsal-fin height about the same as its base. Anal-fin height shorter than its length. Pectoral fin twice as long as pelvic fin and reaching a little further than pelvic-fin base. Pelvic-fin base 0·33 closer to pectoral-fin base than to anal-fin origin. Posterior end of pelvic fin at 0·33-0·5 the distance between pelvic-fin base and anal-fin origin. Low number of dorsal-fin rays (17-26). Large variability in anal-fin rays (24-33). Lateral-line scales 37-45. Fourteen to 20 scales between dorsal- and anal-fin origins. Dark band between dorsal- and anal-fin origins, when present, extending over two lateral-line scales. Head, transversal band and a spot on the caudal-fin base dark coloured compared to rest of the body. Sometimes a second dark transversal band between the posterior ends of dorsal and anal fins. Body elongated. The electric organ has electrocytes with non penetrating stalks innervated on the posterior surface (NPp).