PlanetCatfish.com

Last update then I'll stop for the day.

Yesterday eve we hit paydirt (literally) with the Microglanis. We returned to the same place for the third evening and walked slightly upstream. In the first 1-2 hr we caught no Microglanis. Then all of a sudden our dip nets, once rammed into the muddy banks, were pulling the Microglanis up in almost every scoop. Twice we caught 3 Microglanis in a single scoop and twice we caught two in a single scoop. We now have 22 Microglanis total from tributaries of the Nanay. So today, I pickled 10, then took pics and a DNA sample from one of those. 26.8mm SL - and this was one of the big ones!

These Rio Nanay fish are slightly smaller than the Rio Blanco fish I bought. I wonder if the remaining living Rio Nanay fish will grow to match in size.

About batrochoglanis being near Iquitos? There is an exporter said to be near Iquitos in Loreto named 'Acuario La Tahuampa SAC and there is a website under that name. In their list of recent arrivals (not recent) or their photo gallery you, or anyone will see photos of catfish and other species I've never seen elsewhere. From there I found photos of what seems to be b. villosus they call "jumbo novia" and b. raninus called "bambi novia tuxedo" Not sure if "novia" is a generic name of batrochoglanis or just catfish in general? Also seen were a few species of pseudopimelodus or possibly microglanis they call "aguaytia". Just in case you're in the neighborhood... Amazing sampling results Eric!

Interesting! Here I see novia used mainly with wood cats, but obviously that's not so for this seller.

"BUMBLE BEE CAT AGUAYTIA" is Rhyacoglanis.

Cheers, Eric

One last fishing trip, this my first by boat, on the Nanay. Something other than walking in streams and creeks.

.From there I found photos of what seems to be b. villosus they call "jumbo novia" and b. raninus called "bambi novia tuxedo" Not sure if "novia" is a generic name of batrochoglanis or just catfish in general? Also seen were a few species of pseudopimelodus or possibly microglanis they call "aguaytia".

" Novia" is most often applied to woodcats but I can see it being used for pseudopimelodids as a common name given the similar general shape (to a collector with no taxonomic background). Aguaytia is a town in Ucayali, so maybe a collection location?
Keep the posts coming Eric!
-Shane

With the help of a savvy local fisherman, who took us several places along the Nanay, we seined the river about 5 times, about 4 hours on the water.

Caught lots of Loricariinae (mostly what the locals call "common loricaria," but I suspect are more of the ), one of which is quite large (like my other catch, about 15cm SL), but also we caught one large dark in the anterior species that the locals call "royal loricaria" and if you ask them the species name they say , but IDK (GBIF says only has been caught in the immediate area of Iquitos). This fish is about 10-11 cm SL.... I hope it's not cataphracta, because those fish get huge (about 30cm SL)! The color pattern reminds me more of , except the space between the eyes is solid black on the fish we caught, rather than having two black stripes by the eyes and pale color on the nose bridge as in the Rio Atabapo fish.

We also caught about 20 -like fish (this will be new for me) and over 30 and about a dozen (neither of the latter I need, since I'm breeding both), plus about 40 doradids of various sizes and at least 2 species mixed together. Also caught angelfish (whatever species is here in the Nanay) and LOTS (I'd guess close to 100, all of which we let go) of festivums, and we got 2 large peacock cichlids and a nearly 2 foot long .

But no along the shores, even though we know other fishermen catch them along this stretch.

The hardest work was dragging large floating mats of aquatic vines against the shore (some mats covering an area of 20+ feet x 15+ feet of water) in order to effectively use the seine, and in two cases we had to wiggle free submerged dead burnt tree stumps and throw them out from inside the seining area so the seine wouldn't snag).

Exhausting work, and I developed some kind of contact allergy after being in the water for so many hours. I ached all over and had a weird skin parasthesia which felt like fiberglass stabbing my skin. Fortunately, 8 hours later, with benadryl, motrin and two showers, the symptoms subsided. And I'm glad it did subside. Last thing I want is the airport authorities to look at me and deny entry to plane thinking I'm infected with something contagious.

Internet is still bad, so we'll have to wait longer for photos.

Cheers, Eric

Just caught up on all the posts Eric, great reading and super envious! You're going to have a lot of fun puzzles to work with when you get home. Safe travels!


Jools

I'm looking at the largest male "common" Ancistrus I brought back from Iquitos. This male has several fleshy bristles (not opercular odontodes) running from the lower front edge (approximately) of the operculum back and up towards the eyes. I've never noticed these before in other Ancistrus I've had. What other Ancistrus species have this feature?

Now that I browse the CLOG pics, I see these on and on .

Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Eric

Hola! I'm back in Iquitos at the Amazon Research Center for Ornamental Fishes this summer. We tried night fishing yesterday in two small creeks along the Itaya. My local fishing partners tell me that these are usually good spots for wood cats and Microglanis at night, but last night we found almost nothing.

I decided this year I would only save fish we catch if they are fish I'm searching for, rather than keeping most of what we caught (which we did last year). Last night we saw only one large sp., three sp. (we caught one but released it).

We caught and kept three 10-12cm SL hoplos, all the same species, although I haven't had time to ID them. Here's pics of two of them. I'm not very familiar with the Callichthyinae; are these ?

Hopefully more and different catfish will follow in the next 10 days.

Cheers, Eric

Yes on the Hoplo ID. That large one is a female (ventral plates not touching).

Have fun!




Jools

Did you take any fish traps to leave out overnight?
-Shane

Shane wrote: ↑03 Aug 2022, 21:21Did you take any fish traps to leave out overnight?
-Shane

No. Sadly, we didn't have any. I'll ask and see if we can get some.

Thanks for the tip.

Cheers, Eric

Update on fishing this year. My trip to ARCOF coincided with the visit of a young college student named AJ from SOKA University in Southern California, a student of Dr. Anthony Mazeroll, the head and heart of ARCOF. AJ had been a big help these weeks. Also here is a very nice German gentleman, Alexander Lenher, who won the ARCOF raffle to Iquitos. And with him came a face familiar to PlanetCatfish, @KarstenS . What a delight it's been to meet these two and fish with them. We collected a lot more fish from a more diverse set of creeks this year. The combination of people has made this a really fun trip and I'm seeing and learning a lot. Still no and no large male , but I've got a few more days.

A photo dump of some of the fish we've caught so far. First, fish from a stream of the Nanay. @Acanthicus helped with some IDs.

, , ?, , a cetopsid (maybe ?) and ?

From a stagnant swampy creek of the Itaya: ?, ? (The position of the eye and lighter color says "not " to me, but I would have hoped to see some forking of the tail), , ? and another small heptapterid (?)

Hi Eric,
Looks like you are having a good time!
First batch of photos - picture number three - small doradid. Looks like a Physopyxis species to me.
This is an edit...I goofed ("adult"): the 5 mm size that you provided is even smallish for the genus Physopyxis.
Lee

Thanks Lee! . That would be wickedly awesome! I hope you're right. I have only 4, but I know where to find more.

Went out fishing again yesterday in the creek where we caught last year. We finally caught one!

We also found and collected a large egg mass of the common here, and we're hatching the eggs at the Amazon Research Center for Ornamental Fishes. We also caught five more , two about 3-4" SL, and a lot of . Also, super excited we caught a 2.5cm SL ! That confirms the genus (at least) of the tiny specimens we collected previously. Along with six more tiny specimens caught last night, I now I have about 10-12 of them. I foresee a new breeding protect!

Hi Eric,
Congrats on your flock of Physopyxis! They are a neat and interesting doradid. I had maintained a group of them that I collected in the Rio Negro in Brazil a number of years ago. But no breeding.

When you get home you might want to dig into the taxonomic weeds a bit in that in addition to P. lyra, another species, P. ananas is also found in the same area.

Continued good collecting!
Lee

lfinley58 wrote: ↑10 Aug 2022, 16:56 ...in addition to P. lyra, another species, P. ananas is also found in the same area.

Yes, I saw that on SpeciesLink.net. My largest fish appears to have only one row of lateral spines, and its coracoids flare outward, so that's why I suspect P. lyra. The little specimens, I'm hoping, are the same, but here they are too small to examine. I'll check more closely back in the USA when I have access to a magnifying scope.

Cheers, Eric

I'm leaving Iquitos and ARCOF soon. I may get one or two more chances to fish the Itaya and Nanay, but this year, in spite of all the new things we found, there are several we didn't find this year, which were around last year:

• Almost no Ancistrus sp. green spot.
• No
  Tatia gyrina
• No
  Panaqolus changae
• No
  Hemiodontichthys acipenserinus
• and sadly, @yellowcat, no
  Batrochoglanis villosus
  .

Cheers,
Eric

Interesting stuff! Have a great trip!

Can I get a confirm on ID for this hypoptopomatine? I believe they are . We caught a lot of these along the Nanay. The color on the caudal peduncle and two tail lobes seem helpful. There's a very rudimentary adipose fin.

Thanks, Eric

Yes, agree with this ID (or at least I never got to species with this one). Also spotted in Iquitos fish exporters back when I was there.

Cheers,

Jools

Hi Jools, are you responding to my post in CLOG data issues? Are you agreeing that cf_guianense is psilogaster?

Cheers, Eric

bekateen wrote: ↑18 Sep 2022, 14:51 Hi Jools, are you responding to my post in CLOG data issues? Are you agreeing that cf_guianense is psilogaster?

Cheers, Eric

I didn't see that, so I will go look.

Cheers,

Jools

August came late, but Christmas came early... Finally, after three months, most of the species I collected or bought in Iquitos in August landed in California. Of course, wild caught fish are prone to mortality, so I'm told that the local students and managers at ARCOF worked to replace some of the fish that died between my stay and shipping. I can't thank them enough.

What I just got home with are:

• 19
  Panaqolus albomaculatus
  (purchased)
• 12-14
  Hemiodontichthys acipenserinus
  (purchased)
• About a dozen
  Physopyxis lyra
• 3
  Microglanis aff_poecilus
  from the Rio Nanay
• 6
  Microglanis aff_poecilus
  from the Rio Blanco
• 4
  Amblydoras nauticus
  (one might be a different species)
• 6
  Rineloricaria lanceolata
• 3
  Batrochoglanis villosus
  , one BIG! (7‐9" TL)
• 6
  Ancistrus sp. Rio Nanay
  (one male 14cm SL and over 18cm TL... huge!)
• 2
  Tatia gyrina
• Over a dozen hoplos
  • About 10
    Dianema longibarbis
  • 2-3
    Megalechis thoracata
  • 4
    Lepthoplosternum
    sp. or
    Callichthys callichthys
    • If Lepthoplosternum, based on catch location (Rio Nanay), I would have expected
      Lepthoplosternum altamazonicum
      or
      Lepthoplosternum beni
      or
      Lepthoplosternum ucamara
      , but the key (HERE) for the species does not immediately get me there. The body seems too slender vertically, and the abdomen completely lacks spots. Nope... they are Callichthys callichthys.

Sadly, what didn't make it home was:

• A dozen
  Trachelyopterus galeatus
• A dozen
  Tatia intermedia
• A dozen
  Rineloricaria morrowi
  

Can you tell if the two doradids shown in photos are different or same species???

Cheers, Eric

The pattern is different, but to me, they look very similar morphologically just from the pics posted. That's a decent-sized Batrochoglanis!

Jools

The lanceolata are finally starting to macho up!

They look great!
-Shane

Thanks Shane! Yes I'm quite happy with them and they're doing well. I wish though that I had received the Rineloricaria morrowi in the shipment. Those are much less commonly imported than lanceolata.

Cheers, Eric