Bat Bridge Creek en route to Brokopondo, Suriname GPS: 5 North 14.675; 55 West 6.064 We begain Day 1 by heading south towards Lake Brokopondo, away from our hotel in Lelydorp. This is the state of most roads once you are away from Paramaribo or the couple of paved roads that go east-west along the coast. Hey Toto! We're not in Uruguay anymore! Giant trucks owned by multinational mining corporations like BHP Billiton, Alcoa, Alcan and the like ploughed thru these roads. And even they occasionally got stuck in the mud! It was very odd...even though there was not much human activity outside of the capital city, there was an eerie absence of birds and wildlife. After having visited India, Bolivia and Uruguay, all very birdy places, before arriving here, the lack of birds was odd. Jeff was the designated driver and we would yell "DREMPEL!", speedbump, whenever we saw one. Sometimes they snuck up on you and we'd be airborne for a second or so. We felt bad for the suspension, even though we were driving a rental. Not sure why they had so many drempels. The giant potholes do just fine, thank you. Seining at the first collecting spot - this place did not have a name, but we saw a lot of bats roosting under the bridge, hence Bat Bridge. It's a small creek under a metal bridge. Jeff wasted no time - he was casting even before Spence, Jen and I stepped out of the truck and grabbed the cameras. Jeff's pent up lust to collect comes largely from living in flat, cold, rural Indiana. I know the feeling - I went to Purdue for 4 years. The pH was 6.4; hardness was 21 ppm; temp = 27 C. The substrate consisted of sand, gravel and pieces of wood. Ancistrus sp. ?? Hypostomus pseudohemiurus (?) ID'd by someone on Planet Catfish. Guianacara owroewefi is very sensitive to capture especially during the first week post-collection. Once you get them home, they are hardy and will breed readily even in crowded tanks. Guianacara are not a coastal species - you will see them only in rivers and streams that are far inland, in my experience, about 100 Km from the coast. Krobia guianensis is by far the most common cichlid in the country. They were everywhere, in all water types and bodies. Many were spawning. Quite hardy, many of them made it home without a glitch. Crenicichla saxatilis here do not have many spots. All C. saxatilis have a notch in the dorso-anterior part of their humeral blotch. Translation: if the shoulder spot were a clock, 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock is missing. :-) Hard to see in this picture, I know. We only caught 4 of them here. By the end of the trip, only 2 survived. We stopped by this creek at night on the way back to our hotel - we found a few Cories. This colorful Astyanax was the first of its genus that I ever brought home. Generally referred to as "Nasty-anax" by collectors and presumably all other fish, I thought I'd give their kind a break and give them a home. Ugh! The mean bastards harassed every Krobia, Mesonauta and Guianacara in the tank until the victims became one with corner silicone. I removed them and placed them with some other fish of similar deportment - C. saxatilis. The pikes were too small to eat them. One day the pikes were no longer small and the Nasty-anax were gone. Now I miss the bastards. Species caught at Bat Bridge Creek: Ancistrus sp. Yellow Hypostomus Astyanax cf. bimaculatus Krobia guianensis Guianacara owroewefi Poptella sp. Loricariid ?? Crenicichla saxatilis (yes, the real one) Characin Red Tail Leporinus fredericki Rhamdia sp. Corydoras cf. aeneus All photos by J. Cardwell, S. Jack, J. Zaradka and V. Kutty Back to ==> Home http://geocities.datacellar.net/NapaValley/5491 Latest update: 20 January 2007 Comments on this page: email me at vin dot kutty at gmail dot com