Here are some pics of my Sumatra trip. Didn't see too many catfishes, so you'll have to pardon the non-fish content.
We saw this juvenile siamang (Hylobates syndactylus) for sale at a pet store (which Ian thinks bears more than a passing resemblance to Pete). The mother was probably shot during its capture:
I came back unscathed from the trip, save for this leech which got me between the toes. It's nothing like what Jools had to go through, but it's the only battle scar I can boast of at the moment:
It was the monsoon season and the water levels were very high. Here's a shot of Sungai Dareh (a tributary of the Batang Hari river at its headwaters) during the monsoon. When I last saw the same river during the dry season 6 years ago, the water level was 3 meters lower, the water was crystal clear, and I could actually see all the way to the substrate (which consisted of large rounded boulders). The water level was low enough that time that boys were actually standing on the boulders in the substrate to fish with home-made spear guns:
This is the habitat for Hemibagrus velox and Bagarius. Anglers fishing with hook and line off of the bridge also caught Laides hexanema.
Here's a smaller clearwater hillstream I sampled:
It looked good, but all I caught were exotics (mollies and guppies), plus Homaloptera gymnogaster. There weren't any catfish in this stream:
Another loach that is fairly common in the headwaters of the Batang Hari is Botia reversa:
Many of the streams had shrimps, including this Macrobrachium with an interesting pattern:
During the trip, I encountered wild-caught fish with coloration more stunning than in domesticated varieties. Here's a wild-caught male Trichogaster trichopterus:
Our collection on this trip consisted largely of market purchases. Here's a sample of the fishes that can be seen at the weekly market in Sungai Dareh (the smaller yellowish catfish are an undescribed Leiocassis and the elongate Hemibagrus are H. velox:
And here's a pile of Hemibagrus at the market (a mixture of H. nemurus and H. velox). Note the chunks of Bagarius in the foreground:
The most interesting fish we obtained at the market wasn't a catfish. It was the fascinating fast-water cyprinid, Schismatorhynchos heterorhynchus, which is characterized by pronounced secondary rostrum. The local name for the fish is simanjong, which literally means "mouth again", in reference to this feature. The beautiful velvet coloration and the interesting shape would make this a fascinating aquarium fish:
And now finally, for the catfishes. Here are two of the catfishes we bought at the Sungai Dareh market:
Bagarius:
Undescribed Leiocassis:
At another lowland stream, aquarium fish collectors obtained this undescribed blackwater Pseudomystus:
The same site yielded Hyalobagrus flavus:
My thanks to Barbie for temporarily hosting the pics.
then I remembered that I'm due for a Sumatran adventure in 2004 
Where in Sumatra you are going Johnny?
, i wear cheap plastic shoes in rocky places but nothing in other waters. Kerinci sounds nice, please send pictures of the fishes when you get back. Selamat jalan!
