Back to Peru

[Ttw]

If all goes well, which may be expecting a lot these days, I am returning to Peru on Friday. I have not been to northern Peru to collect for many years. The plan this time is to collect the drainage of the Mazan and Napo rivers. Will be on the river about a week then hopefully back home. Always some interesting unknowns when doing this.

 

[ButtNekkid]

Remember, pics or it didn´t happen.

 

[Tom C]

I wish you the best of luck! (and hope you avoid getting infected with Omicron).
If you need a very hard working and skilled fisherman and one who can arrange most things; my fisherman in Iquitos is available for assignments...

 

[Ttw]

Thanks Tom. Good to know.

 

[Ttw]

Back from an extended stay in Peru. This trip was unique in that we experienced things that I had not experienced in years of collecting. One of our party was stung by a stingray, one stepped on an electric eel and one was bitten by a piranha. Then we all came down with COVID thus extending my stay.
After a long flight from Los Angeles we flew from Lima over the Andes to Iquitos.
We then boarded a small motorboat and headed down river on the Amazon toward the mouth of the Napo.

We landed at Indiana in order to take a short cut to the Napo and avoid the long trip from the mouth up to near where the Mazan opens.

We met another boat that took us up the Mazan to our research camp.
Here we fished our first stream. No Apistos but did find some Rivulus.
Also some pretty beetles.
The next day we boarded our main riverboat and went up the Mazan. We stopped along the way to seine in the main river and caught a puffer and lots of what I call ubiquitous silver fish.
We then hiked into the forest to fish small streams.
In this one we found lots of bitaeniata.
We went to various locations along the river to fish the streams and also small lakes.
Again we found bitaeniata and the occasional piranha as well as lots of different catfish.

I have reached the limit of file attachments so I will continue in another post.

 

[Ttw]

Continuing my story. The last picture was of a broad and shallow stream where we caught I believe cacatuoides.
Also caught were some rivulus, cories and broca.
Along the bank we saw trees with lots of oropendola nests.
In this small stream we found a fish that I'm not certain of it's identity along with cacatuoides.


We collected in several other sites such as these. But no other species of apisto was found.
Some mornings were wet and sultry. But the evenings were beautiful and a great time to enjoy a cold one and reflect on the day.

The water level was very low and prevented us from getting to some areas that we wanted to fish but still a good trip.

 

[Frank Hättich]

In this small stream we found a fish that I'm not certain of it's identity along with cacatuoides.
View attachment 11106

Thanks for the report! Without knowing the catch location, I would call this fish A. cf. cruzi.

 

[rasmusW]

Beautiful pictures and thanks for the “Walk-through”…
I hope all party members have recovered for whatever bite, sting, electric shock and disease came your way.

-r

 

[Ttw]

The fish was caught on the Rio Mazan at S 3° 29' 00" W 73° 11' 55"

 

[Frank Hättich]

The fish was caught on the Rio Mazan at S 3° 29' 00" W 73° 11' 55"

In this case you can drop the "cf.", it's A. cruzi. The location is very close to their type locality.