Whiskered Tadpoles, Swamp Cichlids and Cows in Pickup Trucks
or How I spent my Birthday
Headed out collecting yesterday fro my birthday. My plan was to sample various seasonal puddles close to the road between Kampala and Jinja. Two beautiful Nothobranchius killies have been reported from this area and I wanted to try my hand at collecting them. It also seemed like an easy collecting trip as I would be going solo.
I drove from Kampala to east to the Mabira forest (just about an hour's drive) as I first wanted to sample a small stream there I had driven past and taken note of before. Looking down on the tiny, one meter wide, stream I could see from the shoulder of the road that it was packed with fish. Imagine my disappointment on taking a closer look and realizing that the stream was full of nothing but guppies. Deciding I had gone far enough east, I got back in the truck and headed back towards Kampala, and all the potential collecting places I had noted while driving to Mabira.
At several locations along the road between Kampala and Jinja the highway passes through papyrus swamps that are mined for clay which is used to make bricks. I stopped at one of these locations (luckily it was Sunday so no one was working making bricks) on the way back. On the south side of the street was a beautiful flooded low area. It was full of emersed tropical plants and the water was stained to the color of weak coffee. I thought it would be a great killie collecting location. Alas, after several pulls all I had caught were hundreds of whiskered tadpoles. When I first saw these I was excited that I had encountered a new type of glass cat. These tadpoles have a very different shape with a clear body, much flattened head, and whiskers that extend about one inch and look just like nasal barbels. I actually brought a few home just to see what kind of frog they turn in to.
About this time the 11 year old boy that had stopped to watch me (there is always one everywhere you go) pointed in my net at the tadpole and said, "frog." Yes, I said and then pointed to my net and said hopefully, "fish?" He pointed to the north side of the road where the brick making operation was and said, "fish." "Ngege," (cichlid) I asked. "Yes." "Nkolongo?" (catfish) I said with hope. "No." Ok, so no catfishes, but you never know when you will get lucky.
The brick making place was a collecting disaster. It consisted of about a dozen grave sized holes about 5-6 feet deep where clay had been extracted. They were spaced about a foot apart and all connected as the water was about six to 10 inches deep in the entire swamp. It did not look promising. Then right over one of the shallow areas I watched about a dozen adult Halpochromis cross between two holes. The boy and I took turns taking stabs at the holes with the net but only managed to catch a few small cichlid fry. About this time I noticed the result of my poor planning. Our efforts had stirred up the clay and the entire area was opaque with mud. There was no way to see where the holes were. Like soldiers crossing a mine field we found our way back to the shore using the net to probe the muddy water for solid ground.
I was now soaked, but it was mostly from sweating in the strong equatorial sun. Then an idea occurred to me. I placed the rectangular net (about 2X3 feet made of PVC pipe) in the middle of a hole and drew it back towards me until it was flush with the hole's vertical wall. Think of using a small hand net to trap a fish against the wall of an aquarium. Then I brought the net straight up. The first pull came up with several Haplochromis! My little friend cheered and I made several more pulls in the same manner. The catch of the day was a single silvery barb with dusky fins about one inch long. I sorted the cichlids to keep four that included a clear young male. There were also several very small fry in the bag (less than one inch TL) that I could not separate. Unpacking them at home turned up more Haplochromis and two tiny Tilapia fry.
About this time I heard honking from across the street and saw that a large dump truck was unable to pass where I had parked my truck on a small dirt road. With many apologies to the driver and his crew I quickly packed up my catch, paid off my assistant, and got back on the highway. I thought to try to tell the boy (remember his only English words appeared to be "frog" and "fish") to give the money to his mother for food. Then I thought that the 5,000 schillings was a windfall the likes of which he would probably never see again, and if he spent it all on soda and candy, it would probably be the only chance he ever had to do such a thing in his childhood.
I stopped at several more potential collecting points but did not try them for various reasons (too many people, obvious pollution, etc). So singing Happy Birthday to Me I headed back to Kampala.
Oh and the cow. He was in front of me in traffic on the way home.
-Shane
. You may try older books from 1980-1990. I have few books about amphibians from back then. They have no photos but very, very detailed informations (to cover signle species they use about 20-30 pages) about every thing you may imagine 
I spend time on my journeys watching amphibians and birds 
