A brand new kind of filament barb has been discovered and described which is from India’s southern tip. This new discovery was released in the newest edition of the Journal of Threatened Taxa. This is really quite an astonishing discovery, and it leads one to wonder what other marvels may be hiding themselves away in the depths of the sea, far from the prying hands of us humans.

Puntius Rohani - Picture from report

Authors, TJ Indra, K Rema, and JD Marcus Knight have dubbed the new barb discovered Puntius rohani, after Rohan Pethiyagoda, an accomplished Ichthyologist, for his contributions on both Sri Lankan and Indian fish.

This new filament barb is distinguished by others of its species by the fact that this particular barb has a black club-shaped blotch by the caudal peduncle. It also seems to lack any other colors or patterns other than this blotch, and it also doesn’t have the black bands near the tip of its caudal fin lobes.

The actual report is really quite riveting, and tells a great deal more about the new filament barb, other differences, discovery, and notations.

If you would like to hear more on this subject, you will need to refer to the paper itself: Devi, KR, TJ Indra and JDM Knight (2010) Puntius rohani (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), a new species of barb in the Puntius filamentosus group from the southern Western Ghats of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(9): 1121-1129. Read the papper (pdf)

Tilapia - Not the record breaking fish

The black depths of the St. Lucie River’s South Fork have really been making waves, and provided quite a catch for an angler.

This past Tuesday evening, Pamela Henry was having a nice quiet time fishing from her dock on the waterway. As she was lazily tossing balls of dough into the water, some of which had peanut butter, she gazed upon a myriad of different kinds of fish which fought over them. However, after repeatedly seeing the mouth of a big “snapper-like looking fish,” Henry thought it was high time to grab a pole and try her luck.

“I just grabbed the first rod I could find and it ended up being one of my old spinning outfits,” commented Henry. “It had 20-pound test line and no leader, but I was going to catch that fish.”

Henry opted to use a soft dough ball for the bait – as she explained that the fish don’t like hard balls- and cast her line into the water, complete with a bobber made of styrofoam.

Reeling in Tilapia with a rod is not an easy thing to accomplish, Henry explained. First of all, they are vegetarians, but secondly, there is something off about the way they feed.

“You have to be patient with a tilapia. They suck in the bait, then spit it out again before they really eat it,” she went on to explain.

Well all her patience paid off, as she reeled in a whopper of a Tilapia, weighing in at 9 pounds, 6 ounces. By all accounts it’s a record breaker.. Congratulation Pamela!

Generic Lionfish – not spike

Spike, a magnificent specimen from the deeps of the ocean, is a whopping 18 inch long lionfish which is believed to be a world record breaker. (please observe that this info is now outdated. The world record is now 47 centimeters or 18.5 inches.)

Spike is one of two lionfish who call the Sequarium in Rhyl home, and is half an inch longer that the largest recorded lionfish.

Paul Tyson, the display manager at the Sequarium, has said that measuring the lionfish is quite a feat as they have those poisonous spikes on their backs.

However, it was well worth the risk in Spike’s case, as it has been found that he is a record breaker.

“Lionfish were originally found in the Indo-Pacific regions but they became popular in the aquarium trade and have since spread worldwide.” Paul explained.

“They are bought when small but grow rapidly and often outgrow their tanks, leading to owners releasing them rather than killing their beloved pet.”

“In the Caribbean they are now at such high numbers they are considered a pest and their capture for the table and recreational fishing is being actively encouraged.

“We’ve done a lot of research and as far as we know, the largest recorded lionfish ever caught is 17 ½ inches long.”

The vet at the zoo, who makes her rounds at all the public aquariums around the UK, has commented that the two lionfish are the biggest she has seen, and many other people in the industry have made the same comment.

Congratulations Spike!

Paulo & the new Catfish species. Picture by :Nature conservancy

An amazonian catfish, which also happens to be armored, has been discovered and it doesn’t eat the usual thing… Nope, this one eats wood. This interesting catfish will eat wood from logs floating around, or if it gets particularly hungry, even the excrement of its neighboring catfish.

This amazing new species of armored catfish was discovered by Paulo Petry, of Nature Conservancy. Paulo, along with some colleagues, reeled in these interesting catfish a few weeks back when on a scientific expedition to the Fitzgerald Arch. The Fitzgerald arch is one of the most out of the way places in the Peruvian Amazon, and is busting at the seams with different kinds of life, but it is also facing imminent dangers from development projects.

The catfish may not win any beauty pageants, however as Petry has commented “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have scientist friends who do work on the blobfish, and they think it’s beautiful!”

The largest of these unique creatures reeled in was roughly 65 centimeters, while the other two captured were only about half that size. They were reeled in at the confluence of the Purus and Curanja rivers.

An interesting question is just why this particular catfish is armored. Although, as Petry explains, finding armored catfish in South America isn’t so unusual. “There are 35 different families of catfish on Earth. Armored catfish are unique to South America. They’re the most diverse group of catfish in South America — probably close to 800 species. They’re a fairly evolved, and a very specialized group within catfish.”

However, what is even more astounding is that this particular catfish eats wood. While it is true that there are some variety of fish will dig their way into logs, however finding a fish which actually makes a meal of the substance is a rare find. There are a very small group of catfish which share this wood eating characteristic. Once this catfish mows down on some seemingly non-nutritious wood, it converts the wood cellulose into a different form of sugar, which it then uses.

Apparently, wood eating catfish wouldn’t be as surprising to us if the people who shipped them off to aquariums didn’t half starve them on the way there. “That’s one of the biggest issues when people bring these fish into the aquarium trade — they let them starve for very long times for shipping, the protozoan in their belly dies, and then they can’t digest wood. If you put another fish from the same group that is in good condition in the tank with them, the starving fish will eat the feces of the healthy fish to reinoculate itself with the protozoan, and then it will be able to eat wood and survive.” Petry went on to explain.

Well there you have it… Wood eating catfish are amongst us. Who knows what other unique and interesting creatures we will find?

Ribbonfish

An interesting “ribbon” fish has made its way to an aquarium, after being reeled in accidentally by fisherman.

The fish was identified as a red bandfish by officials at the aquarium.

The fish, found on the south coast, has been donated to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

However, this fish, which can grow to a length of 32 inches, can be reeled in as far south as Senegal on the west coast of Africa, and in the Mediterranean.

Lindsay Holloway, of the Blue Reef, commented: “They’re extraordinary-looking fish that definitely seem to be more at home in the Mediterranean than around our shores.”

“No one is sure how many there are living in the Channel as they are normally very shy and reclusive fish who spend the majority of their lives inside their burrows.”

Red Bandfish

“One reason that this individual was caught may be as a result of the recent stormy weather, which can result in their burrows being destroyed.”

“As a result, dead specimens are sometimes washed up on to the strandline after rough seas.”

Living up to its name, the fish is usually red, with orange and yellow highlights, making it look like a ribbon. It also sports silver colored eyes, and very tiny, but razor sharp, teeth.

Like many other tropical garden eels, the red bandfish are believed to spend most of their days hidden from view, in their tiny caves located on the seabed some 1,300 feet deep, and only emerge at night.

The Fraser River is being overrun by sockeye salmon.

Sockeye Salmon (freshwater coloration)

Officials from the fishery are now estimating that the number of sockeye returning has climbed to roughly 30 million, which is a 5 million increase from their previous count of 25 million earlier this week.

This is the highest number of returning salmon recorded since 1913, when around 39 million sockeye made their way back to the Fraser River, just before a rock slide into the river gave birth to Hells Gate and caused a huge disruption in the stocks of salmon for decades.

The run this year is looking to be almost three times higher than the 11 million originally estimated before the season started.

The late run this year is projected to be large as well, due to the fact that it will include the peak cycle Adam River run.

However, this run has really turned a lot of heads, as the Pacific Salmon Commission this past Friday has raised its estimate of late run sockeye to an astounding 21.4 million, which is a far cry from their 8.5 million prediction prior to the start of the season.

Up till now, more than 6.4 million salmon have swum their way upriver, avoiding the gilnetters on the lower Fraiser, as compared to the 5.7 million which were estimated as having being caught.

And there doesn’t seem to be any sign of a shortage.

It’s good to see mother nature replenishing her stocks, after such a long “dry spell”. Hopefully this is just a taste, and the salmon runs will continue to be as plentiful in the years to come.

Herring catch

Six skippers are facing unlimited fines and confiscation orders to the tune of millions of pounds after admitting they breached fishing quotas.

Six trawlermen from Shetland are facing the music for reeling in an astounding 15 million GPB worth of herring and mackerel, cheating the strict quotas in place which are designed to help depletion of fish stocks.

The six skippers, hailing from Lerwick, admitted to making false declarations about the true hauls they brought in after over 200 trips between January 2002 and March 2005, which deliberately breached annual fishing quotas of their own.

The conviction came down, after an exhaustive investigation by the Scottish fisheries protection agency and police which also led to guilty pleas from the fish wholesalers Shetland Catch Ltd. For cooking their fish books, and falsifying reports about the size of their catches.

This particular case is one of the biggest on record involving what are known as “black landings”. Black landings is the practice of illegally catching and reeling more fish than what quotas allow for.

Black landings have all but died out, however director of operations with Scotland’s prosecution authority, Scott Pattison, has commented that there were also similar investigations still ongoing.

“This is not a victimless crime. The consequences of overfishing on this scale are far-reaching and the impact on fish stocks and the marine environment is potentially devastating,” he said. “The legislation is to protect the marine environment for the good of all and to safeguard the fishing industry.” he said.

Fish with Ich Credit: Dehai Xu, Ph.D

According to new research presented by Dehai Xu, Ph.D. at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS)*, a vaccine against the feared ich disease might be available in the foreseeable future.

Ich is a disease dreaded by hobby aquarists and professional fish farmers alike. It is caused by the ciliated protozoan Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (hence the name ich) and can easily kill of all the fish in an aquarium or fish pond. Fortunately, it seems to be unable to infect humans. Among aquarists, it is chiefly known as White Spot Disease since the parasites cause small white nodules to form on the skin and in the gills of infested fish.

Today, ich outbreaks in large commercial fish farms are often treated by adding hundreds of gallons of a formaldehyde solution to the water. This is far from an ideal solution, since formaldehyde can be toxic to both humans and fish. It is classified as a known human carcinogen by the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and is associated with both nasal sinus cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer. And as anyone who has ever combated ich in an aquarium knows, ich treatment is something you have to do over and over again since the parasite is usually only sensitive to treatment during one of its multiple life stages. This means repeatedly adding large quantities of formaldehyde solution to the pond. Even when formaldehyde ich treatment is successful, it provides no long-lasting effects since the fish develops no immunity. If new outbreaks occur, a new treatment cycle has to be carried out.

It is therefore no surprise that the series of vaccine tests carried out by Dr. Xu and his colleagues Dr. Phillip Klesius and Dr. Craig Shoemaker, who are with the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Alabama, have sparked vibrant interest within the aquatic world. For anyone from commercial fish farmers to public aquaria and hobby fish keepers, an ich vaccine would be a dream come true.

“Outbreaks of the parasitic disease caused by Ichthyophthirius (Ich) can result in losses of 50-100 percent of fish,” Dr Xu explained while presenting the team’s findings at the ACS meeting. “The disease is very common, and almost every home fish hobbyist has encountered it. Once the parasite infects fish, and starts growing in the skin, fins, and gills, there is no really effective treatment. Ich causes losses estimated at $50 million annually. It would be much better to prevent the disease. To vaccinate against Ich, you would need much less medication, and it would not pose an apparent threat to the environment. And you would need just one treatment to make the fish immune for life.”

In their efforts to develop a vaccine, Xu and his colleagues have focused on the use of so-called trophonts.

The ich protozoa goes though three life stages:

• The ich trophozoite feeds inside the nodule (”the white spot”) on the skin or gill of the fish.

• The ich trophozoite falls off and becomes an ich tomont, i.e. it enters an encapsulated dividing stage. During this stage, the tomont is attached to plants, gravel or other objects in the environment.

• The ich parasite will then start dividing itself, producing trophonts. The trophonts will move around freely in the water, looking for fish to infect.

Trophonts burrow into the skin and fills of a fish and start to feed, thus completing the cycle. When Xu, Klesius and Shoemaker began their research project very little was known about how fish develop protective immunity to trophonts, so the researchers basically had to start from scratch.

Eventually, they were able to show that vaccination with live ich theronts and trophonts killed with high-frequency sound waves stimulated production of protective antibodies in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

“This study demonstrated that vaccines against Ich induced protective immunity and could provide a unique solution to prevent this parasitic disease through vaccination,” Xu said. “An Ich vaccine would have great impact by preventing the disease, minimizing loss of valuable fish and increasing profitability of aquaculture.”

Injecting fish in a laboratory setting is one thing, administering a vaccine to thousands or even millions of fish in a huge commercial farm is another, so the next goal will be to find a way of carrying out large-scale vaccinations. It might for instance be possible to produce a large quantity of Ich antigen and then creating a vaccine that can be administered as food or in a “bath”.

For aquarists however, injecting each fish with the vaccine might actually be a feasible solution, provided of course that an injectable vaccine would be produced for the aquarium market.

* http://portal.acs.org

Self cloning crayfish

An invading rare kind of self-cloning crayfish has been discovered in Madagascar, and is causing all sorts of alarm among researchers. Scientists are afraid that if these self-cloning crayfish continue to expand their territory that it could have sever consequences on the local environment. Madagascar is the home of numerous plants and animals, and is very delicately balanced. These invading crayfish may cause quite a disturbance.

The fear is escalating on Madagascar, an island located on the Indian ocean, as this self-cloning crayfish are invading and are eating their fair share of the rice paddies, and are an imminent threat to the endemic crayfish species.

It is not quite clear just how, or when, these shrimp like crustaceans, which are believed to have come from North America, came to Madagascar, which is some 400 miles off the coast of Mozambique.

Researchers think that the crayfish may have made its way from Europe, where scientists from Germany warned that crayfish were becoming very prolific as aquarium fish back in 2003.

A biologist at the Universite d’Antananarivo, professor Olga Ramilijaona, has explained that the first of these crayfish were found in a rice paddy close to the Capital in 2003.

However, the first “invasion” of the species, known as Marmorkrebs or Procambarus due to the fact that they appear to be closely related to North American crayfish in the genus Procambarus, particularly Procambarus fallax, came in the rainy season of 2007, when the crayfish, which were sold to less fortunate locals as a source of protein in the diet, began being sold in the markets.

Looks like there will be plenty enough to go around on the menu, if something isn’t done about this soon.. Scientists still don’t have a plan of action, but they are working on it.

Costa Rica

A United States based world fisheries conservation association is gunning for punishment to be dished out, after a sportfishing boat was attacked by a commercial Venezuelan tuna purse seining boat and a helicopter off of Costa Rica’s coast.

This incident was reported, and is well documented, on The Billfish Foundation’s website: http://www.billfish.org.

The past August 1st, at just about 3PM, a United States sportfishing boat, the Silver-Rod-O, owned by Gary Carter, a TBF member, of Duluth, GA., was assaulted by the other craft, Venezuelan flagged tuna purse seiner La Rosa Mistica (The Mystic Rose), while minding its own business some 15 miles off the shores of Garza, Costa Rica.

According to Gary, the Silver-Rod-O was minding its own business, trolling around a school of spinner dolphin for yellow fin tuna and billfish, when a helicopter off of the La Rosa Mistica, began to circle overhead.

“We were celebrating one of our guest’s first-ever sailfish release, when the seiner veered from its course and headed directly toward our boat. The helicopter then began making passes over the anglers and as the seiner came closer and began setting its net, the helicopter started dropping incendiary devises around the Silver-Rod-O and the school of spinners.”

“Several explosives landed within 50 meters of the boat. The purse seiner continued to power straight toward our boat,” Carter said, “It was threatening to either encircle us in their net or to plow us into the sea unless we abandoned the school of dolphin. Rather than endanger our guests, we retreated and watched and listened as the La Rosa Mistica closed the net and its crew obnoxiously celebrated its victory.”

Just goes to show you, be careful where you fish! Hopefully, the Costa Rican authorities will look into the matter, and justice will be served.