A little adventure on a local stream..

[tortelli]

Hey there,
Had some fun at a local river this weekend and took some pictures..
I would be pleased if anyone could help me identify these critters!

I guess this one is a rineloricaria..




At the moment I caught it..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_04kMEF6Ag
Releasing it

And there's this pleco here..
Thought of bringing it home, but.. I guess that would overpopulate my tank (it is already on its limit!)




They were both released.. my idea was only identification!

But I brought home this guy here

I guess it is a Scleromystax Brbatus.. I'll upload better pictures if anyone wants me to.
here is a video of me freeing one of these guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DC74hKXq0E

any opnion is welcome!

PS:sorry if I don't have any underwater video/picture this time.. I don't have the proper gear for a descent film.

[naturalart]

That second fish looks like an ancistrus species of some sort. Female possibly.

[Jools]

These are really cool pics, could you post the river or a link to a map or something? This will help with ID of all three species.

Cheers,

Jools

[tortelli]

it is called Quiriri River, southern Brazil





yess! we also have some rednecks!
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 17&iwloc=A

[Unungy]

Awesome pictures.

[MatsP]

The first fish looks to be a Hemiloricaria, but I'm far from certain - most of your pictures are great, but the clarity on the first fish isn't that good.

--
Mats

[corywink]

Awesome pics, yes please share more pics of the Schleromystax barbatus . Did you catch any other corys?

[tortelli]

too bad I don't have any underwater material made in place..
All I see there are some boring brazilian cichlids (cichlids aren't boring, but those are!)
darter tetras are veeery common, rinoloricaria/hemiloricaria, and as far as I can tell, those scleromystax!
I'll try some different streams where there are different corys, more precisely, on small streams that run along rice paddies.
here are some pictures of some stuff I caught and brought home.

are those barbatus??




small whiptail I brught home some weeks ago (he changed his skin color so much according to my tank`s sand)

This little fella here was infested by some bacterial/fungal infection.. and just didn`t make it.. my bad!
We are not the amazon river basin, but we still have some interesting stuff to have fun with!
thanks for aprecciating our local fauna's pictures.

[racoll]

Nice location!

The first looks a lot like

Rineloricaria latirostris

or

Rineloricaria aff_latirostris

.

The

Ancistrus

could be close to

Ancistrus multispinis

.

[tortelli]

Well, I have to agree on the ancistrus multispinis issue!

this is a male I caught at the very same spot a few weeks before


another hemiloricaria (a smaller one which was added to my tank a few days ago)

[AndiH]

The one sure does look like S barbatus I used to have.

[tortelli]

friend of mine filmed this where I caught mine..
gotta love them

[Mod edit: Youtube tags... --Mats]

[RickE]

Awesome stuff Tortelli! It's fascinating to see the habitat from above and below the water as well as the excellent photos you have taken of your catch. The fact that you can now pinpoint the precise location on Google maps is a complete bonus. Now we know what Google maps was created for!

[tortelli]

That's right!
The fun fact is, that the water on this stream is so clean, and unpoluted that it's also the main water source on this area. It is only 20 minutes away from a 600k inhabitants city centre. The temperature is not as hot as in the amazon, the water is a little cold though(20ºC, quite cold for brazilian standards), and the majority o the population around is made of german/italian/portuguese descendents.
I just wanted to bring those information to the topic, to avoid that classic misconception of Brazil, as if we were mostly living in a nat geo documentary, on floating houses among natives.
And you know what else is weird? you don't see any S. barbatus for sale on any fish store around, they usually sell C. Schwarzi, Albino Cories, and thats it!

[MatsP]

Yes, Brazil is a big country, and not ALL of it is in the Amazon basin... ;)

The reason you don't see local fish in your local fish shop is probably twofold:
1. It's more exciting to have "exotic" fish.
2. The shop can probably buy tank-bred C. scwartzi and C. aeneus (albino or normal) for less than your local fishermen wants for the S. barbatus, as they can be sold to exporters...

--
Mats

[tortelli]

Yes Mat, I have to agree with you.

But you know what is weird?
S. Barbatus is now an "exotic" species, cause most of the lfs stuff have already become too "common"..
and I don't think any local fisherman attends those rivers..
just a minor net of streams, no big deal, and the biggest fish there is the jucundá (Crenicichla sp)

(a friend took this picture was taken at the same spot I dive)
ohh yes, my friend caught some of these cories there, but I haven't had the chance to see any so far

[MatsP]

What I mean by "exotic" is that they are NOT found in your local rivers. Shane (Linder, who has given name to "Shane's World") says that in Colombia, many people buy "Clown Loach" and "Goldfish", but in the rivers in Colombia, there are some of the most interesting aquarium fish you can find (the other interesting ones are from Brazil, Peru, etc). But no, people don't want fish they can find in the local rivers, they want "unusual" fish that are from Asia. There's obviously nothing wrong with Clown Loaches, just that it is, as the Swedish saying goes, "crossing the river to fetch water".

--
Mats

[tortelli]

same here!
well, goldfish are common here probably because of the large japanese community (the biggest outside japan)..
and stuff like fighting betta are used by the government to fight potential dengue fever mosquitos (it is not that common, but I heard of that before)
.. a clown loach is everybody's favorite loach in Brazil, people are obsessed by it!
I can't deny I have this taste for south asian loachs and gobies..
and yes, it seems like europeans want plecos much more than us!
now the biggest trend over here are african cichlids and iwagumi scaping, both non brazilian concepts.

[Yann]

Hi!

Your fish look like

Rineloricaria aff_latirostris

The Ancistrus looks pretty similar to

Ancistrus claro

the Cory your friend caught look like:

Corydoras ehrhardti

cheers
Yann

[tortelli]

hey there Yann!

Well, I'm afraid you are more than right about the corydora, it is definetly an ehrhardti.
Talking about the ancistrus, I still think it is a multispinis, due to the location it was caught in, and the pattern of its spots.
When it comes to the Rineloricaria, I give up, simply because it keeps changing its color too much.
now.. according to planetcatfish, these two guys

Rhamdioglanis transfasciatus

and

Acentronichthys leptos

, are endemic to our rivers..
I'm searching for them soon as I go back there!

[Mod edit: Use clog tags --Mats]

[Yann]

Hi!

Yes I agree on the ID multispinis, I didn't check the interopercular odontodes...but by judging the number multispinis is a good ID

Regarding the ID, I was thinking about the very first Rineloricaria, regarding the others, I have no idea

Still it is nice!!
they do look good!!
Cheers
Yann

[Coryman]

Looking at all the Scleromystax pictures, I think they are not barbatus, but S. kronei. I have yet to see live specimens of S. salmacus, so it is difficult to really compare it.

Ian

[tortelli]

is that so?
kronei?
Too bad the S. Kronei page isn't working..
I want more details on how to raise, and possibly breed them.
My city is one of the hottest cities on my state, and that stream's average temperature is 15ºC
all too weird..

Anyway, thanks for the info!

[MatsP]

For the broken Cat-eLog, I've submitted an updated, but Jools will need to upload it to the site...

--
Mats

[tortelli]

no probolems Mat!
I'll take a look at it soon as it becomes available again..
you have already helped me a lot..

Ian,
this one is the first I got from hat river

isn't it a barbatus?

[Jools]

Scleromystax kronei

species page now working!

Jools

[bigbird]

very nice posts and pictures. You are very lucky and happy that you share this with us. cheers jan-kurt

[tortelli]

thanks a lot Jools!