Taxonomy & naming
Pao wesleywongi was published in 2026 by Davinci, Putra, Adis, Pranadi, Zamroni, Muslimin, Kamil and Yulindra in the Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology & Fisheries, describing material collected from Lake Singkarak, Tanah Datar Regency, West Sumatra, Indonesia.
The name had a rocky start. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, CAS) — the authority this site follows for valid names — initially recorded that no clear type specimen had been fixed in the original publication, which under ICZN Article 72.3 would render the name unavailable, and listed its current status as a synonym of Dichotomyctere, the Southeast Asian and brackish-tolerant puffer genus, rather than as a valid species of Pao. The Catalog's update of 21 September 2026 resolved that: the species record now cites a holotype, MZB Fish 28740, with two paratypes, and gives the current status as valid as Pao wesleywongi. The atlas follows the Catalog and treats the name as valid from that date.
One caveat still stands. We have not been able to consult the original paper directly — no online copy is available to us — so the account below rests on the Catalog record and on what the description's abstract and title report, not on a reading of the full text.
Morphology
We do not have access to the original paper's morphological description, and Catalog of Fishes' summary record for this name does not include measurements, coloration or diagnostic characters. We are not going to guess at what this fish looks like beyond what is documented.
Generally, Southeast Asian species of the genus Pao share a stocky, scaleless, spiny-skinned body typical of freshwater tetraodontids, with a small beak-like mouth formed from four fused tooth plates that grow continuously and require hard-shelled food to wear down — a family-level pattern, not a description of this specimen.
Habitat
The material studied in the 2026 description came from Lake Singkarak, a large natural lake in the Tanah Datar Regency of West Sumatra, Indonesia — the only locality documented for this name. No further habitat detail (depth, substrate, water chemistry) is available to us from the Catalog of Fishes record.
Lake Singkarak is a freshwater tectonic lake in the Sumatran highlands; beyond that general geographic fact, we have no species-specific habitat data to report.
Feeding
No feeding data specific to this name has been documented in the sources available to us. Genus-level, Pao species are molluscivores and durophages that crush hard-shelled prey such as freshwater snails and small crustaceans, wearing down their continuously growing beak in the process — a family/genus-level pattern stated here for context, not a confirmed observation of this taxon.
Mating
No mating behaviour has been documented for this name in the sources available to us. Genus-level, Pao puffers are understood to be solitary and territorial outside of spawning, without lasting pair bonds — a pattern reported for the genus generally, not observed for this specific taxon.
Breeding
No breeding data has been documented for this name in the sources available to us. Where breeding has been recorded in other Pao species, it typically follows a substrate-spawning pattern with paternal guarding of the clutch, but nothing of the kind has been reported for wesleywongi specifically, and we would be cautious about assuming it applies here.
In the aquarium
Pao wesleywongi is not documented in the aquarium trade, and nothing published tells us how it behaves in a tank. A lake endemic known from a handful of specimens is not a fish to go looking for. Genus-level, Pao puffers are solitary, often aggressive predators that need a species-only setup, a diet of hard-shelled food to manage their continuously growing beak, robust filtration for their heavy waste load, and strict avoidance of copper-based medication because they are scaleless and lack true gill covers — general husbandry guidance for the genus, offered here for context rather than as species-specific advice.
Conservation
Pao wesleywongi has not been assessed by the IUCN Red List. With the name now valid in Catalog of Fishes, an assessment is at least possible in principle, but none exists and no threat data specific to this fish has been published. What can be said is structural: Lake Singkarak is a single highland lake in West Sumatra, and a fish known only from it has no second population to fall back on. Endemics confined to one lake are vulnerable to whatever happens to that lake — fishing pressure, water abstraction, introduced species — and the absence of an assessment reflects how little anyone has looked, not a finding that the species is secure.