Pungwe River Survey

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Chilo_glanis
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Pungwe River Survey

Post by Chilo_glanis »

Hello all

I have been a non-active/silent member of PC for a while and this is my first post so please excuse me if I have made any errors. Just a quick introduction, my name is Mahomed Desai and I am a senior researcher and PhD candidate of the Aquatic Ecosystem Research Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I have also been fishkeeping on and off for many years. During February and June 2017 (high-flow and low-flow seasons, respectively), I was part of a team that undertook a terrestrial and aquatic survey of a select region of the Pungwe River system within Mozambique.

Below are some of the photographs and narrative of the survey.

Pungwe River - Gorongosa District Border

The survey site located at the Gorongosa district border is the southern limit of the African Rift Valley. Below is a photograph illustrating the upstream reach of the site.

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The reach was bedrock and boulder dominated and typically possessed rapid and run hydraulic biotopes.
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However, during the low-flow season numerous isolated pools were also present.

The dominant siluriform species within the upper reach are illustrated below

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Chiloglanis sp.

We initially thought it was but conversation with the collections manager of the South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity suggest that it is possibly a new species and not C. pretoriae.

Dominant non-catfish species included:

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Hydrocynus vittatus

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Labeo cylindricus

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Cyphomyrus discorhynchus

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Marcusenius macrolepidotus

The lower reach of the site was characteristically alluvium-dominated and braided.
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Dominant species included:
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Labeo altivelis

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Brycinus imberi

Unfortunately, overfishing and unsustainable fishing practises were observed at the site with local community members using home-made gill nets and mosquito netting. However, traditional fishing practises of using traps were also observed.

Pungwe River - Gorongosa National Park

During the low-flow season we were able to sample the Pungwe River where it traverses the Gorongosa National Park. The river here inundates a relatively large floodplain and supplies water to several pans and Lake Urema during the high-flow season. During the low-flow season the river retreats and forms a braided channel with numerous backwaters and in addition, creates isolated pans within the floodplain.

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Species recorded here but not at the aforementioned site included:
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Microphis fluviatilis

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Glossogobius giurius

The Z. monomotapia and M. fluviatilis were collected from the gravel run in the foreground in the picture below.
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Furthermore, one of the temporary pans were sampled and several Protopterus annectens were collected.
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In the last photo several individuals of Kassina tadpoles can be noted. These were favored prey of the lungfish.

One of the tributaries of the Pungwe River that was sampled was the Muazi River. There were several ephemeral creeks that flowed into the system during the rainy season and these distinctively provided a refuge for a diversity of biota during high flows in the Muazi. During the low-flow season the Muazi tansforms into a rapid-pool complex with a mixed boulder and bedrock substrate. Interestingly, numerous quartz crystals were embedded within the substrate (this made kick-sampling for invertebrates quite challenging). The turbidity of the water coloumn was lower than the Pungwe mainstem allowing for the extensive and relatively dense growth Hydrostachys polystachya. Based on observations and pre-liminary statistical analyses a diversity of fish species exhibited a preference for the vegetation and the rocky crevices created by the substrate as cover.
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Some of the species recorded here included:
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Chiloglanis sp.

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Enteromius radiatus

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Opsaridium zambezense

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Enteromius lineomaculatus

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Enteromius macrotaenia
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by Dave Rinaldo »

Thank you!! :)
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by Jools »

@Birger and @Shane will love this post almost as much as I do (maybe more!).

Thanks for sharing - at least one of these species is not in the database, may we use your photo to represent it?

Cheers,

Jools
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by Chilo_glanis »

Thanks Dave and Jools for your interest.
Thanks for sharing - at least one of these species is not in the database, may we use your photo to represent it?
Sure, not a problem. Which species is it and do you need me to send you the file?
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by Fundulopanchax76 »

Hi Chilo_glanis ! Interestingly didnt you find nothobranchius species ?
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Post by panaque »

Wonderful report and photos, thanks for sharing
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Post by MarcW »

That's a great report, I really enjoy reading about field trips and collecting especially when there are plenty of high quality pictures like you have provided. Thanks!
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by Chilo_glanis »

Fundulopanchax76 wrote: 06 Oct 2017, 07:13 Hi Chilo_glanis ! Interestingly didnt you find nothobranchius species ?
Yes we did :d Nothobranchius kuhntae
Habitat
Habitat
Male
Male
Female
Female
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by Chilo_glanis »

Thanks for all the comments. I will upload more survey stories whenever I have the chance.
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Post by Narwhal72 »

Great post. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by TwoTankAmin »

Please do post more like this. Thanks.
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Post by bekateen »

Absolutely, yes, this is a wonderful story. Thank you Mahomed. Please keep it up.

Cheers, Eric
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Post by flatfish »

Great pics and a great read. Thanks for posting
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Post by Shane »

Wonderful post, many thanks for sharing.
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Post by Viktor Jarikov »

If there was a contest for the best first post, this would have won it hands down. What a delight to read and see!
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by Jools »

Chilo_glanis wrote: 06 Oct 2017, 02:46 Thanks Dave and Jools for your interest.
Thanks for sharing - at least one of these species is not in the database, may we use your photo to represent it?
Sure, not a problem. Which species is it and do you need me to send you the file?
I couldn't get the images directly that were stored on photobucket, but have grabbed the catfishes and others that would download. Thanks again, these are great!

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Post by Birger »

Fantastic report, I was most interested to hear about the Zareichthys sp. Love the Amphiliids.
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by bekateen »

Chilo_glanis wrote: 05 Oct 2017, 22:15 Image
Hi Mahomed,

I'm sorry to say that the photos in your original post have become blocked by photobucket for display. Can you find a different way to share them? Maybe change your account settings on photobucket, or upload the photos here?

Thank you, Eric
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by Jools »

Yup, photobucket is being horrible to their users by a major change in their terms of service. Read more here. You could also upload them as attachments to multiple posts if posting in future.



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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by fat meloe! »

Here's a tip:

Click on chilo_glanis's "My images" link to see the photobucket-removed pictures.

(Ugh, when I went to photobucket.com to see the Bivane pics, I was flooded with a ton of those scammy "clickbait" ads that seem to be everywhere and on multiple visits I even got several pop-ups that escaped the popup blocker! I now absolutely refuse to visit photobucket.)
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Re: Pungwe River Survey

Post by TheFishGuy1 »

Great post! Please share more of these posts.
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