PlanetCatfish.com

Well, the time has come! It's barely 2006 and this years ("official"?) PlanetCatfish collecting trip starts Friday.

I have no idea what sort of connectivity we will have over the next two weeks, so it might all go quiet for a while but I though I'd start a thread to try and answer any questions you guys might have, get the three of us even more excited, find out if anyone else has any picture requests or indeed just make a place for the three of us to post our tales and experiences - yeah, OK, it's a BLOG.

Hopefully we'll be in Leticia on the Amazon by the weekend.

I'm buying an evening's beer for the first catfish collected by one of us that ISN'T already a CotM (beer goes to the collector NOT the catfish) and that species WILL be February's featured catfish. OK, well it might be the first IDENTIFIED catfish we find...

Jools

Just finished phase two of packing, anyone interested in the list?

Jools

you lucky buggers

Lucky B*stard!

What rivers and habitats are you planning to sample?

As I saw 'Columbia' visions of dozens of species whirled through my head. I'm Green with envy of seeing them in person.

Good luck and safe journey.

Dave

Good luck and happy fishing!

Is there any fish your are after in particular? I look forward to the pics and report

What rivers and habitats are you planning to sample?

We will be based out of Leticia on the north bank of the Amazon. Leticia is sort of one town in two countries with the Leticia in Colombia and Tabatinga in Brazil. Across the river on the Amazon's south bank is Peru.

We will collect the main Amazon in the area which is very much a white water habitat. We will also travel down river to Benjamin Constant where the Rio Yavari (Javari) enters the Amazon. This is a black water river and little explored. Further upriver are a series of "lakes" that become disconnected from the river in the dry season. These are blackwater lakes and should be interesting. I have collected in the area twice in the past, but never in the lakes.

Forecast:
Days; A couple of thunderstorms in the morning; mostly cloudy and very humid
High 31 C (87.8F) Real feel (temp plus humidity) 37 C (98.6F)

Nights; Mostly cloudy and humid; late-night thunderstorms
Low 21 C (69.8F) Real feel 27 (80.6F)

Leticia
http://www.junglephotos.com/towns/towni ... towns.html

The lakes: Lago Preto
http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology/dice ... preto.html

One guys experience....
"...talked to a Colombian girl the other day, and when I told her that I was going to Leticia, she just laughed and said they would slit my throat before I got to the arrival hall. At least, surely before the taxi stand. I didn't think more about it before I got to the check-in desk at Bogota airport. "Hey guys, this gentleman is going to Leticia" said the woman behind the counter. Everyone stopped what they were doing, the luggage handlers, the security staff, the other women behind the counters and all the passengers waiting in line to check-in. They all started laughing. "Good luck" I heard someone say."
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-en ... /tpod.html

-Shane

snowball wrote:Is there any fish your are after in particular? I look forward to the pics and report

Best way to ensure dissappointment is to "go after" one species or a particular experience. It's not the sought after fish kick you get from an LFS. Believe me, I've caught wild Guppies in Venezuela and Zebra Danios in India, it's not the species that makes it exciting, it's seeing the wild animal (whatever it is) in its habitat (actually in both cases something of a puddle) and taking it from there. Then everything is a bonus.

Pics will be forthcoming, we've yet to discuss what the written output will be.

Jools

good luck guy's, im hoping to go back to brazil later in the year .

Kev

This is a bit off topic, but related. There are 3 unanswered questions in the FAQ, namely:

Questions Which Have No Answers

* My catfish lost his babels by getting stuck in a rock. Will he be ok and able to eat properly?
* How does the L-number system functions? Who creates them? By what criteria?
* Why do catfish have whiskers?

If anyone wants to answer any one or selection of these (or collate a response from others) please do as I'm out of the game for at least two weeks.

Jools

How does the L-number system functions? Who creates them? By what criteria?

Jools, I think this one is answered in the "Just Say Pleco" article.
-Shane

Shane wrote:

How does the L-number system functions? Who creates them? By what criteria?

Jools, I think this one is answered in the "Just Say pl*co" article.
-Shane

OK, and if it's not, I'll change it so. Cool, one down.

Jools

Do you think you might see any Chaetostoma?????? How I'd love to see that! Safe travels.
Amanda

Do you have paperwork in place to import some of your finds?

oh - one more thing - Can i come??

Good luck - I'm dead jealous

I have applied for an Importers Liscense. I am hoping to bring back a few fish. I just need to grab a few small items and I am totally packed ready to go!

Do you think you might see any Chaetostoma??????

Amanda, we will be too low in elevation to come across Chaetostoma but we will certainly see tons of them while hitting exporters in Bogota.

I am finally all packed up and ready to fly out tomorrow.

Fish packing list (we split stuff up between the three of us)
Lots of various size plastic bags
Photo tank
Ruler
Thermometer
16 foot seine (double weighted)
12 foot seine
24" X 24" folding dip net
Ammo Lock
Stress Coat
Battery operated pump
Telescoping rod and reel with light tackle
Rubberbands
Journal

To save space we will purchase several large plastic tubs and broomsticks (to cut up and use as brails) in Colombia.

-Shane

Best of luck guys. Have a great trip. I would love to see some photos of Corydoras axelrodi, loxozonus, melini, metae habitats.


Mark

Corys recorded from in and around Leticia:
C. agassizii (Tabatinga holotype)
C. ambiacus
C. arcuatus
C. elegans
C. fowleri
C. gomezi
C. leopardus
C. leucomelas
C. melini
C. rabauti
C. sodalis (Rio Yavari holotype)
C. trilineatus

Unfortunately Corydoras axelrodi, loxozonus, melini, and metae are all llanos corys (Orinoco drainage), but we will still have a good selection.
-Shane

-Shane

"In a flash the many weeks of preparation for this trip roll before my eyes, climaxing on the moment of my arrival in the tiny Amazon town of Leticia, Colombia, a jumping-off spot for any tropical fish collecting in Colombia, Peru or western Brazil."

Jack Wattley, "Handbook of Discus"

-Shane

For those interested in things other than fish, the main tribes that we will be in contact, and collect, with will be the
Yagua
http://www.biopark.org/peru/yahua.html

Tikuna
http://www.poorbuthappy.com/colombia/node/3109
On a strange note, I have collected the EXACT spot in the above photo (I know the village discussed) and it is a great place to collect angelfish.

and Huitoto along the Rio Yavari
http://indian-cultures.com/Cultures/huitoto.html

I pay attention to these things 1) because they interest me and 2) because my wife is an anthropologist and makes sure I am aware.
-Shane

Safe & successful journey Guys!

Something I'd like to see later is detail of the fish's journey back to the UK. How they're packaged, effects of air-pressure, temperature, and such. Time in Q'tine. Permissions... All the stuff we tend to maybe take for granted.

Have a safe trip.....isn't that hipdeep in FARC-county where you guys are going?

I was in Equador a couple of years ago, and we went to the Equadorian-Colombian border with a group and a native guide to romp around in the jungle (great trip btw) and the Americans we brought with us (4 or 5, can't remember exactly) weren't exactly happy about it; the natives don't exactly love peeps from there with the whole war-on-drugs-thingy going on......

take care! otherwise you have to buy yourself free by selling rare catfish to us, and once we have enough; we'll get you out

Are you taking pH/conductivity meters?

Probably too late now, but this all in one waterproof compact field unit is less than £100

http://www.hannainst.co.uk/acatalog/HI_ ... meter.html

Shane and WhitePine kept me up to 4AM this morning after 36 hour travelling (which included an unscheduled stop in Panama City 'cos we ran out of fuel).

All in great shape this morning. Off to Leticia in 10 minutes.

Jools

We are here and in good health. Arrived yesterday afternoon and did some minor collecting in a pretty little creek. It was a bad catfish beginning and "Fish O the Day" going to an Apisto. Today was much better with collecting in the main Amazon channel and up Cano Gamboa, blackwater channel. Mainly corys, Brochis, and some loricariids. Shane got catch of the day with a very bizarre trichmycterid that none of us has ever seen any thing like before.

Sounds very interesting..
I `d like(Others too, I think) to know what plants there is growing. Floatingplants, underwater?
Make a notes and tell us, please.

Have a safe trip!

We are all well and fly out tomorrow. Our plans for posting updates as the expedition went along were foiled by the fact that high speed internet has yet to arrive here. There was also the fact that after 12 hours in the sun swinging a net we all want to enjoy a few cold beers rather than visit a very, very slow internet cafe. Despite not posting for the last week or so, we have caught some very neat catfishes that nobody has seen before and photographed the habitats of a number of popular aquraium fishes. We actually spent this afternoon being bad catfish guys and seining big wild angel fish because they are plentiful and pretty and we were pooped out.
We can certainly post some pics of wild plants as well. Whitepine is a plant guy.
-Shane

Sounds like a fantastic trip, I look forward to hearing the full story.

It will be a presentation at CSG and All Aquarium Catfish Convention 2006