btate617

I got the chance to hear Dr. Ron Coleman give a talk Saturday night.

If he shows up somewhere near you I highly recommend you hear him speak.

His talk this time around was about trying to find/collect Tomocichla Asfraci.


http://cichlidresearch.com/aboutme.html



Brian

bolivianbaby

That's awesome, Brian! We're so happy for you. Now, you can pass the knowledge you gained Saturday onto us

chuba

Wow he looks to be a very knowledgable individual. Thanks for the heads up, although I wonder how often he gets out to the east coast.

btate617

BB one thing that I thought was interesting was Vieja Maculicauda (black belt cichlid) that are collected in Costa Rica on the Caribbean Sea side right at the border with Panama.

There are pools of water that run parallel with the Caribbean Sea (high content of sea water obviously) then these pools head up stream into the rivers right.
In this area the only place they are finding Vieja Maculicauda are in these pools. He said if you go up stream say 300-400 meters there are none to be found.
I thought it was interesting these fish are prefering to remain in this water so close to the sea rather than going upstream to "fresher" water.


By the way no Tomocichla Asfraci were found on the trip.......


Brian

bolivianbaby

That is interesting. I never would've thought they'd have any salt tolerance at all. Am I correct in understanding this is the only place they're found anywhere? If so, that information will have a HUGE impact on keeping the black belt cichlid.

I wonder if the Tomocichla Asfraci is going to end up on the IUCN list. From my "quick search", it looks like they were searching in the correct area for them. My information is saying they haven't been evaluated for the IUCN red list. Maybe they should be

btate617

It is wierd they seem to prefer this salty water.
But no this is not the only place they are found. They can be had on the Atlantic slope of Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, costa Rica, Panama, etc...

Just this "population" of them prefers these waters. And the water is nasty it looked very stale in the pictures he had, although many Centrals come from really bad stale, sewer looking waters. I don't understand why these ones don't head up stream. In other parts of the world they are found way inland in rivers. I would be curious to know if say there are some populations of black belts in say Honduras that prefer to also stay very close to the sea?? Then others that head way up stream?


With the T. Asfraci they just didn't find them this time. He says they are in bigger numbers in Panama rather than in Costa Rica however trying to get fish out of Panama is the problem. But Lalo, his guide, has told him he has found a way they can get into Panama legally and look for them. So we shall see. He is going back in the near future so I hope he is able to find them and bring some back.