Taxonomy & naming
Chiloglanis niger was described by Tyson R. Roberts in 1989. It belongs to the family Mochokidae — the squeakers and upside-down catfishes of Africa — and to the genus Chiloglanis, a large group of small suckermouth catfishes distributed throughout tropical Africa's rivers and hill streams. The Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, California Academy of Sciences) is the authority for the valid name Chiloglanis niger.
The genus name Chiloglanis combines Greek roots referring to the lip and the catfish form, describing the sucker-like modified lips that define the genus. The specific epithet niger is Latin for "black" or "dark", a straightforward description of this species' uniformly dark coloration, and it also nods to the Niger River basin the species inhabits. As with many small, range-restricted African stream catfishes, data on C. niger remain sparse beyond the original description and regional survey work.
Morphology
Chiloglanis niger is a diminutive catfish, reaching only about 1.5 in standard length, among the smallest of the suckermouth squeakers. Like other members of the genus, its lips are modified into a ventral sucker disc, an adaptation that lets it grip smooth rock surfaces in fast current — the same basic strategy used by hillstream loaches and some plecos, arrived at independently in an African mochokid.
The body is uniformly dark, close to black, consistent with the epithet niger. As in all Mochokidae, the skin is scaleless (naked), and the species carries the stiff, serrated, locking dorsal and pectoral spines typical of the family. Those spines can snag in a net and jab bare skin, so this fish — small as it is — should still be moved in a container rather than netted.
Habitat
Chiloglanis niger is endemic to Cameroon, known from the Menchum River and other streams of the Bamenda highlands within the Niger River basin. It lives in fast-flowing, well-oxygenated highland streams, gripping rock surfaces with its sucker mouth in current too strong for most fish to hold station in.
Detailed water-chemistry data for this exact species were not found in available sources; the surrounding Bamenda highland streams are cool-to-warm, well-oxygenated, and typically soft to neutral, but specific temperature and pH figures should be treated as data sparse rather than confirmed. Prospective keepers should not assume a generic soft-acidic-blackwater profile without better data — this is a fast-water highland stream fish, a different environment entirely.
Feeding
As a suckermouth Mochokid, Chiloglanis niger is best understood as a nocturnal benthic grazer and micro-predator: it rasps biofilm, algae and associated small invertebrates off rock surfaces while anchored by its sucker lips, foraging mostly after dark like most catfish in the family.
In captivity, related Chiloglanis species take sinking foods, algae wafers and finely chopped or frozen invertebrate foods once acclimated, though this exact species has essentially no documented aquarium feeding history. Offering food after lights-out, as with other squeakers, is likely to suit its natural rhythm better than daytime feeding in a lit tank.
Mating
No description of courtship or spawning behaviour specific to Chiloglanis niger was found in available sources. Related Chiloglanis species are reported to be oviparous, with some accounts describing paired parental attendance around the clutch, but this has not been documented for C. niger itself and should not be assumed to apply without confirmation.
Breeding
Breeding of Chiloglanis niger in the aquarium is essentially undocumented. There is no confirmed spawning mode, parental-care pattern, or hobby breeding record for this species — data sparse is the honest summary. Given the genus's general oviparous habit and its highly specialised fast-water habitat, any home breeding is unlikely without replicating strong, well-oxygenated current and cool-to-moderate temperatures, and no aquarist reports of success were found.
In the aquarium
Chiloglanis niger stays genuinely tiny — about 1.5 in — but this is not a species with an established aquarium track record, so care advice here is necessarily general and drawn from its biology rather than from hobbyist reports. It would need strong water flow and high oxygenation to thrive, replicating the fast highland streams it comes from, plus smooth rocks and stones it can grip and graze.
Two points apply regardless of how little else is known: it is scaleless like all Mochokidae, so it should be treated as medication-sensitive — dose copper and other treatments conservatively; and it carries locking, serrated spines like its relatives, so it should be handled in a container rather than a net despite its small size. Given the scarcity of husbandry information, this species should be considered a fish for specialist keepers working from first principles rather than an established hobby staple.
Conservation
Chiloglanis niger has not been evaluated by the IUCN Red List (Not Evaluated). As a narrow-range endemic restricted to a small area of the Bamenda highlands within the Niger River basin in Cameroon, it is the kind of small, obscure stream fish that is easily overlooked by conservation assessment despite potentially facing real localized pressures — habitat degradation, water abstraction and land-use change in West African highland streams affect many such species. No population trend or threat data specific to this species were found.