The biotope of a new Harlequin rasbora is also home to an endangered Betta

Aiman Azminovich Biotope, Biotopes of Malaysia, Uncategorised 1 Comment

I’m Aiman Azmi, a student born and raised in Peninsular Malaysia. I have been observing and collecting fish around me since I was a kid, I’d eagerly follow my father, a biology professor, on any fish collecting trips he would go on and have been fascinated by freshwater ecosystems ever since. The habitat I chose to write about is a freshwater swamp in Tanah Merah. Situated close to the border with Thailand, Tanah Merah is a district within the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. The words “Tanah Merah” translate to mean “Red Earth”, and even as far back as the 7th …

BIOTOPES OF FLORIDA | NOTROPIS PETERSONI | THE COASTAL SHINER

Ryan Crutchfield Biotopes of North America, Uncategorised Leave a Comment

Notropis petersoni, known as the coastal shiner, is endemic to the south-eastern United States where it ranges from North Carolina, through coastal South Carolina and Georgia, throughout Florida, and west through Alabama to Jordan River in Mississippi (Image 1). It can be found in in many different environments including lakes and spring heads, sandy pools, and backwaters of creeks and rivers¹ and feeds predominantly on aquatic invertebrates (crustaceans), with plant material in it’s diet being mostly incidental². N. petersoni has a black stripe along its side which wraps around the snout and often there is another lighter stripe above the …

Biotopes of Hong Kong | Hill Stream Habitats | Blue Neon Stiphodon

Jeffery Chan Biotope, Biotopes of Hong Kong, Conservation 1 Comment

Hill stream habitats in Hong Kong are home to some of the most endearing and enigmatic fishes on Earth. These oxygen-rich, cool mountain streams or often, torrential rivers, provide crucial habitat, not only for exclusively freshwater dwelling species, but also form important migratory routes and nurseries for anadromous, amphidromous and catadromous fishes, those which migrate upriver, those with complex breeding strategies involving both fresh and saline systems and those which migrate downriver to the sea to spawn, respectively. One Hong Kong hill stream species which is particularly fascinating is the goby Stiphodon atropurpureus. From their striking iridescence, their adaptation of …

Biotopes of South Africa | Pseudocrenilabrus philander | The Southern Mouthbrooder

Chris Englezou Biotope, Biotopes of Africa, Uncategorised Leave a Comment

Pseudocrenilabrus philander is arguably one of the most underrated fish species found in the aquarium hobby, albeit rarely. In nature, it is known from a wide range of habitats, including streams, lakes, and ponds and some populations are even known to exist in slightly brackish waters¹. The species is found in biotopes across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique and Swaziland and the population featured in this article were collected and photographed just this week along the Hex River near Rustenburg, South Africa by aquatic researcher Russell Brian Tate. Research has …

Biotopes of Brunei | Treasures of Temburong

Zaheer Afie Biotope, Biotopes of Borneo, Uncategorised Leave a Comment

Due to work and college commitments , I had almost no free time to do anything other than rest. With the COVID-19 situation happening globally, Brunei was also affected, borders were closed and we couldn’t travel internationally, thus I decided back to go to the jungle to release some stress. The border closures resulted in the Bruneian government opening up the Temburong bridge (now formally named as Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Bridge). Temburong Bridge links the 3 mainland districts of Brunei with the Temburong exclave and is the longest bridge in Southeast Asia, 30-kilometre (19-mile) long. As there is …

The Rio Files: Rheophilic species and their biotopes | Teleocichla centisquama

C.E. Fish Essentials Biotope, Biotopes of South America, Uncategorised Leave a Comment

Teleocichla centisquama was described as a new species from the region of Altamira along the Rio Xingu in 2002 by scientists, Ivan Sazima and Jansen Zuanon. The following article includes excerpts from the species description and outlines a little about the habitat, plights and behaviour of this endearing, but highly threatened rheophilic cichlid. T. centisquama dwells on rocky bottom rapids with moderate to strong water flow, It perches solitarily atop boulders, where it maintains its pectoral fins and hind body in contact with the rock and often adopts a sigmoid posture(possibly to maintain hold in the strong current). On boulders …

Biotopes of Zambia | Neolebias lozii, a critically endangered fish from the Barotse floodplains

Chris Englezou Biotope, Biotopes of Africa, Uncategorised Leave a Comment

Neolebias lozii, also known as the Banded Neolebias is a species of critically endangered Characin in the Distichodontidae family. The two sites where the species has been found are less than 2 km apart and the streams meet <5 km downstream, and the area of occurrence consists of only a few km of streams 1 to 2 m wide in the dry season. In terms of the alien invasive threat, the streams are classified as a single location, but would be classed as two separate locations in the event of an agricultural chemical pollution event or road tanker spill. The …

Biotopes of Japan | Stiphodon percnopterygionus

Marcelo Fernandez Biotope, Biotopes of Japan 1 Comment

The first time I saw a photo of a Stiphodon sp. I felt a sensation of observing a masterpiece of art, I have always been amazed (and still feel the same today), those colours of the males combined with the characteristic iridescent lines near the mouth make them special and unique. This “drawing” made them practically perfect. Then researching and looking for information, over time, I understood a little more about their biology, I now knew their real size, how they always tried to be on top of the rocks to control everything visually from there. Of course, the characteristics …

Biotopes of Cameroon | Aphyosemion ahli | Ahl’s Killifish

Chris Englezou Biotope, Biotopes of Africa Leave a Comment

Aphyosemion ahli Myers, 1933 is a Lower Guinea endemic found in the Wouri River in western Cameroon and southward to the Rio Benito drainage system in western Equatorial Guinea. It occurs in swamps and quiet parts of brooks under forest cover in the coastal lowlands (Wildekamp et al. 1986). It also inhabits flooded pools in the coastal rain forest and is usually found in shallow water; it is a benthopelagic, non-migratory species. (IUCN Redlist 2010) This individual was collected from a coastal swamp biotope north of the city of Douala in Littoral, Cameroon, within the Mungo River drainage area. The Mungo …

Biotopes of Brasil | Rio Xingu, home of the Zebra Pleco

C.E. Fish Essentials Biotope, Biotopes of South America, Uncategorised Leave a Comment

The Zebra pleco Hypancistrus zebra is endemic to the middle of Brazil’s Rio Xingu (pronounced shin goo) and is among the list of catfish species at risk from the Belo Monte dam. It lives at a depth where the surroundings are, at best, pretty gloomy, if not completely dark. It lives in the cracks, gaps and natural caves found in the very specific type of rock found in the river. This is dark brown to black hard igneous rock that, in shallower water, is set in tan-coloured sand. There is very little submerged wood, there are virtually no plants and …