- Messages
- 234
- Location
- Goodyear, Az. USA
and the sand flies.
Back from my collecting trip to the border of Peru and Bolivia. Over all this was one of the most demanding trips I've done. We left Puerto Maldonado and went by small boat down the Rio Madre de Dios to the Rio Heath. We went up the Rio Heath for four days collecting as we went. We slept on the beaches along the river. Caught catfish to supplement our meals. We shared the beaches with plenty of sand flies and quite a few cayman some up to about 15 ft long. We also saw tapir and capybara. Unlike the usual hot humid weather, we had a friaje which is a cold front bringing rain and cold temperatures. I certainly was not prepared for cold weather so suffered through some cold nights.
We collected both streams and small lakes. There weren't alot of fish but we collected apistos in almost every site. On this leg of the trip we collected A. luelingi and some apistos that I'm not sure of the identification. The lateral band and caudal spot are reminicent of A. urteagi but the fish are much more colorful than seen in the reference books. Mike W. has seen some early pictures and has some different ideas I think.
After returning from the Rio Heath we collected west of Puerto as well as east. This collecting was done primarily in streams. Here we collected A rubrolineata and another apisto that I couldn't identify. It is covered on the opercula with blue/green serpigenous lines and this coloration extends over the body. The belly region is a bright yellow. There are vertical stripes in the caudal. The lateral band and caudal spot remind me of the other unidentified apisto but the coloration is completely different and the collecting sites widely separated.
I was able to bring some of each type of fish home. These are young specimans so are not yet colored up. They are eating and other wise doing well. Hopefully I can get them to spawn and get these fish out into circulation.
I did record water parameters at each site as well as photographing the sites.
Back from my collecting trip to the border of Peru and Bolivia. Over all this was one of the most demanding trips I've done. We left Puerto Maldonado and went by small boat down the Rio Madre de Dios to the Rio Heath. We went up the Rio Heath for four days collecting as we went. We slept on the beaches along the river. Caught catfish to supplement our meals. We shared the beaches with plenty of sand flies and quite a few cayman some up to about 15 ft long. We also saw tapir and capybara. Unlike the usual hot humid weather, we had a friaje which is a cold front bringing rain and cold temperatures. I certainly was not prepared for cold weather so suffered through some cold nights.
We collected both streams and small lakes. There weren't alot of fish but we collected apistos in almost every site. On this leg of the trip we collected A. luelingi and some apistos that I'm not sure of the identification. The lateral band and caudal spot are reminicent of A. urteagi but the fish are much more colorful than seen in the reference books. Mike W. has seen some early pictures and has some different ideas I think.
After returning from the Rio Heath we collected west of Puerto as well as east. This collecting was done primarily in streams. Here we collected A rubrolineata and another apisto that I couldn't identify. It is covered on the opercula with blue/green serpigenous lines and this coloration extends over the body. The belly region is a bright yellow. There are vertical stripes in the caudal. The lateral band and caudal spot remind me of the other unidentified apisto but the coloration is completely different and the collecting sites widely separated.
I was able to bring some of each type of fish home. These are young specimans so are not yet colored up. They are eating and other wise doing well. Hopefully I can get them to spawn and get these fish out into circulation.
I did record water parameters at each site as well as photographing the sites.
