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Sleeping with the caymans

Ttw

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
219
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.
 

Ttw

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
219
Location
Goodyear, Az. USA
P1000152.JPGThis is the lower Rio Heath. The river was pretty shallow since this was the dry season.
P1000154.JPGThere were actually rapids present with the low water level. P1000199.JPGWaiting at the base of the rapids in case the fish collectors capsized
P1000161.JPGOne of our camps on the beach
P1000162.JPG Our boat with a real outboard motor
P1000183.JPG Breakfast and lunch
P1000169.JPG A beautiful tortoise that we found. No we did not eat it.
P1000246.JPG One of the A. luelingi habitats. pH 4.6 TDS 0 ppm
P1000245.JPG Another luelingi habitat. pH 4.7 TDS 0 ppm
P1000256.JPG A. rubrolineata habitat. pH 5.9 TDS 10
P1000182.JPG This is a field picture of the unidentfied apisto from the Rio Heath area. pH 6 TDS 40P1000261.JPG This is a poor field picture of a mature male unidentfied apisto from the Rio Madre de Dios
P1000248.JPG area. And this is the habitat in which we caught him. pH 4.9 TDS 0
 

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