Ichthyofauna of the upper Juruena river on Chapada dos Parecis, Mato Grosso, Brazil

Willian Massaharu Ohara,Marina Vianna Loeb

doi:10.1590/1676-0611-bn-2016-0224

Abstract

Abstract The fishes herein included were collected in four small streams of the upper rio Tapajós basin. Through fieldwork carried out in 2011, 2013 and 2014 during the low water season 1.728 specimens belonging to 22 species distributed in 11 families, and five orders were captured. Characidae was the most representative family both in number of species and specimens captured. The most abundant species were Hyphessobrycon melanostichos, H. hexastichos, and H. notidanos. Five species are recognized as new, and four as endemic to the upper rio Tapajós basin. This study represents the first fish inventory for the region and will provide valuable information for the conservation of the poorly known diversity of fishes of the Chapada dos Parecis, in the headwaters of the upper rio Tapajós basin.

Highlights

The Neotropical region, that includes the South and part of Central America, harbours the most diverse freshwater fish fauna in the world including 5.400 registered species (Reis 2013), with estimates of a final number between 8.000 – 9.000 species (Schaefer 1998, Reis et al 2016). Most of this ichthyofaunal diversity is located in the Amazon basin (Amazon, Orinoco and Guiana basins), in which 2.354 (Albert et al 2011) or 2.411 (Reis et al 2016) valid fish species are included
Approximately 300 fishes are registered from the rio Tapajós basin (Ferreira et al 1998, Camargo et al 2005, Silva-Oliveira et al 2016), but collecting efforts have mostly concentrated on the lower and middle portions of the basin, so that a catalogue of fishes of the upper rio Tapajós basin is still lacking
The species recorded from the upper rio Tapajós basin are listed in Table 1 and the corresponding photos are provided in Figures 3 and 4

Summary

Introduction

The Neotropical region, that includes the South and part of Central America, harbours the most diverse freshwater fish fauna in the world including 5.400 registered species (Reis 2013), with estimates of a final number between 8.000 – 9.000 species (Schaefer 1998, Reis et al 2016). Approximately 300 fishes are registered from the rio Tapajós basin (Ferreira et al 1998, Camargo et al 2005, Silva-Oliveira et al 2016), but collecting efforts have mostly concentrated on the lower and middle portions of the basin, so that a catalogue of fishes of the upper rio Tapajós basin is still lacking. This contribution represents the first attempt to survey the fish species of the upper rio Tapajós basin and will certainly provide valuable information for future studies especially on conservation of the poorly known diversity of fishes of the rio Tapajós basin

Methods

Results

Conclusion