Fishes near Iquitos

[bekateen]

The lanceolata are finally starting to macho up!

These R. lanceolata have now spawned: Rio Itaya black Rineloricaria lanceolata spawned

[bekateen]

What I just got home with are:

• 6
  Ancistrus sp. Rio Nanay
  (one male 14cm SL and over 18cm TL... huge!)

Cheers, Eric

After reading a Facebook post by Junior Chuctaya and a reply from Emanuel Neuhaus, I learned that this Peruvian Ancistrus is part of a study and as of now it's being investigated as

Ancistrus cf_leucostictus

. Note: I realize that this FaceBook post may not be visible, so I've screencaptured it and attached it here:

Facebook post (in case it's no longer visible)

These Peruvian fish are far-flung from the type locality of

Ancistrus leucostictus

sensu stricto, and the SL of the Peruvian fish is at least 4 cm longer than the max SL recorded for the Guyana populations. Molecular data is going to be important to unite or split the Peru and Guyana populations.

• As a side comment on SL, there was a 2019 Zootaxa review of this species by De Souza et al. which has a photo of
  Ancistrus leucostictus
  AUM 48162. The photo's caption reads "185.3 mm SL" for the specimen shown. But if you use the 1 cm scale bar of the photo to estimate the same specimen's SL, you obtain about 85 mm SL; and in the species text narrative (page 24, inside the "Specimens examined" paragraph), this same museum sample contains no specimen larger than 87.8 mm SL. I think it's pretty clear that the "185.3 mm SL" is a typographical error. So when I say Peruvian fish are 4 cm larger than the described populations, I'm going off the SL of my big male at about 140 mm SL as shown in my photo here.

I've had some of these for 16 months now and I'm kinda surprised they haven't yet bred. Patience....

Cheers, Eric

[sturiosoma]

We returned to the same spot off the Nanay this afternoon. Hugely successful... but you'll have to wait till at least tomorrow for pictures. Among today's catch:

• one big
  Limatulichthys griseus
  (also about 8-10 cm SL) and 2 or 3 smaller individuals.

Wow, did I underestimate this! 15.06 cm SL!

Eric when you go on your collecting trips do you ever take note of plants and trees growing in and around collection points most folks just check water parameters.

Jeanne

[bekateen]

Hi Jeanne,

I have a few photos of the area, but I don't take close-up photos or document identities of the plants along the shorelines. In the streams where I collected, there are essentially no submerged plants. The stream beds are fine sand, leaf litter and submerged logs and branches. The shorelines are either bare mud because of human activity, or they are overgrown with long terrestrial grasses dangling into the water or in some cases there are floating mats of plants (I guess technically those are aquatic plants).

In the streams I've sampled, pH is between 4-6 and TDS is often down around 15-30ppm.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

After reading a Facebook post by Junior Chuctaya and a reply from Emanuel Neuhaus, I learned that this Peruvian Ancistrus is part of a study and as of now it's being investigated as

Ancistrus cf_leucostictus

.

These Peruvian fish are far-flung from the type locality of

Ancistrus leucostictus

sensu stricto, and the SL of the Peruvian fish is at least 4 cm longer than the max SL recorded for the Guyana populations. Molecular data is going to be important to unite or split the Peru and Guyana populations.

I've had some of these for 16 months now and I'm kinda surprised they haven't yet bred. Patience....

Cheers, Eric

These Ancistrus are now spawned. Details will be posted here: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=51736

[bekateen]

Trip #3: I'm back in lquitos at the Amazon Research Center for Ornamental Fishes to work, this time for four weeks. My first catch: I think it's another

Amblydoras nauticus

, just bigger than the four adults I have from my last trip. In the river, when we first caught it,
my quick view made me think initially that it might be a different species or even genus because of its larger size. We were at or near the type locality of

Hypodoras forficulatus

, so I was hopeful for that, but this photo seems to say, "not that."

[bekateen]

Seen at Stingray Aquarium today, being sold as

Ancistrus temminckii

, although that's not correct since these fish have a dark spot behind the base of the dorsal fin spine.

Direct link: Ancistrus spp... being sold as Ancistrus temminckii

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Today we fished the main channel of the Rio Itaya. Caught Hypoptopoma, lots of Pims, one small shovelnose, two striped raphaels, some mouse cats, and one novel

Ancistrus

. This specimen is unlike the green- spotted Ancistrus we caught before (HERE) and the more common- looking

Ancistrus cf_leucostictus

from the area. I've never seen this species around Iquitos before. Reminds me of a punctatus-like

Ancistrus hoplogenys

.

Ancistrus sp. from the Rio Itaya southwest of Iquitos, Peru

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Caught a few of these

Rineloricaria

in the Rio Itaya main channel. Can't figure out the ID. Locals call these "hauxwelli," but these aren't

Loricariichthys

. That said, we also caught some Loricariichthys, which might be

Loricariichthys hauxwelli

.

Two fish are shown. The first one is much larger than the second.

Larger fish:

Smaller fish:

These fish are nothing like the Rineloricaria we caught either in 2022 [HERE] or 2021 [HERE] and [HERE], although they were all collected near each other. In my opinion, these are probably the least interesting (in regard to pigmentation) of the Rineloricaria species here.

Cheers,
Eric

[Jools]

The top one looks a lot like

Rineloricaria sp`loreto`

which I collected around the Iquitos area IIRC. The contrast oon my pic is high and that fish is also settled and not on a white backgrond.

Jools

[bekateen]

Here's a fun connection to my fishing in and around Iquitos. Recently, some of my Peruvian colleagues (Morgan, Leo, Carlos and James) published a survey of one of the creeks I fished in. The survey was done in 2019. I fished there in 2021, 2022, and 2024. I found all of the same catfish there on my trips as they list in their publication, except the trichomycterid

Ochmacanthus reinhardtii

and sadly, I never found what they called

Tatia dunni

(I would have liked to have taken some of the Tatia home with me). Also, I didn't find it there, and it's not a catfish, but the

Thalassophryne amazonica

would be cool to have caught too.

Cheers,
Eric

Ruiz-Tafur, M., Davila Panduro, E.L., Chuquipiondo Guardia, C.T. & J.R. Garcia-Ayala. 2024. Fish from the Pintuyacu stream, Itaya River basin, Peruvian Amazon. Folia Amazonica, 33(1). e33764 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24841/fa.v33i1.764

The present work corresponds to a fish inventory, carried out between August and September 2019, in three sampling sites in the Pintuyacu stream, a tributary of the Itaya River basin, in the Peruvian Amazon. Based on 504 individuals analyzed, 117 species were identified, corresponding to 33 families and 8 orders. The most diverse order was Characiformes (65 species, 55.6%), followed by Siluriformes (31 species, 26.5%). At the Characidae family level, it presents the highest species richness with 24 species (20.5%). The most abundant species were Stethaprion erythrops (13.1%, 66 individuals), Knodus smithi (13.1%, 66 individuals) and Bujurquina peregrinabunda (6.2%, 31 individuals). Species for ornamental and consumer use were recorded. No threatened species were recorded and most were classified as Least Concern (LC), according to IUCN criteria. The present study is the first to present a list of the ichthyofauna present in the Pintuyacu stream and consequently the first inventory published for the Itaya River basin. Which highlights the need to continue carrying out ichthyological inventories, with the aim of enriching the knowledge of the freshwater ichthyofauna of the country and the Amazon region, as well as applying necessary measures for the conservation of our ichthyological
resources.

• KEYWORDS: Conservation, taxonomic composition, Amazon Basin, inventory, freshwater fishes

Ruiz-Tafur, M., Davila Panduro, E.L., Chuquipiondo Guardia, C.T. & J.R. Garcia-Ayala. 2024. Peces de la Quebrada Pintuyacu, Cuenca del Rio Itaya, Amazonia Peruana. Folia Amazonica, 33(1). e33764 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24841/fa.v33i1.764

RESUMEN
El presente trabajo corresponde a un inventario de peces, realizado entre agosto y setiembre del 2019, en tres sitios de muestreo en la quebrada Pintuyacu, tributario de la cuenca del rı́o Itaya, en la Amazonı́a peruana. En base a 504 individuos analizados, se identificaron 117 especies, correspondientes a 33 familias y 8 órdenes. El orden más diverso fue Characiformes (65 especies, 55.6%), seguido de Siluriformes (31 especies, 26.5%). A nivel de familia Characidae presento la mayor riqueza de especies con 24 especies (20.5%). Las especies más abundantes fueron Stethaprion erythrops (13.1%, 66 individuos), Knodus smithi (13.1%, 66 individuos) y Bujurquina peregrinabunda (6.2%, 31 individuos). Se registraron especies de uso ornamental y de consumo. No se registraron especies amenazadas y la mayorı́a se clasificaron en preocupación menor (LC), según los criterios de la IUCN. El presente estudio es el primero en presentar una lista de la ictiofauna presente en la quebrada Pintuyacu y consecuentemente el primer inventario publicado para la cuenca del rı́o Itaya. Lo cual pone en evidencia la necesidad de continuar realizando inventarios ictiológicos, con la finalidad de enriquecer el conocimiento de la ictiofauna de agua dulce del paı́s y de la región amazónica, ası́ como aplicar medidas necesarias para la conservación de nuestros recursos ictiológicos.

• PALABRAS CLAVE: Conservación, composición taxonómica, cuenca del Amazonas, inventario, peces de agua dulce