Cola Kreek, Suriname
GPS: 5 North 27.772; 55 West 13.686
Cola Kreek is a weekend getaway and recreational park an hour outside the capital, Paramaribo. There are a network of canals connected to blackwater creeks. As we pulled up to the park entrace, we were hoping for some undisturbed collecting and relaxation, but two bus loads of tourists arrived at the same time. Crap. I hate tourists, I though to myself ironically, this is going to be interesting. About 30 tourists disembarked in a hurry and ran in unison to the nearest palm tree and dropped their pants to their ankles and emptied their collective bladders. Well, I guess we wouldn't be collecting near that tree. We later learned that they were patients from a local mental hospital.
Perhaps the patients chose to pee on the tree trunks because all the toilets were 'bad?' ;-)
Beautiful, blue and big Apistogramma steindachneri
Need ID help. A beautiful yellow Astyanax sp. (?)
A sampling of what we caught with dipnets
The canals were choked with Cabomba sp.
Jeff caught this large knifefish. Possibly a Sternopygus cf. macrurus. They can twice this size.
A female A. steindachneri.
And he had an army behind him too. We quickly walked the other way!
Well, as we were about to leave, I saw that it was 'verboden to vissen' but apparently it's OK to pissen. Hey, it's good to have a healthy disrespect for signs.
Species seen at Kola Kreek:
- Cichlasoma bimaculatum
- Astyanax sp.
- Krobia guianensis
- Nannostomus trifasciatus
- Nannostomus sp. One-line
- Polycentrus schomburgki
- Crenicichla cf. nickeriensis
- Acestrorhynchus sp. Purple
- Gymnotus carapo
- Copella sp. Splash tetras (?)
- Brycinus cf. melanurus
- Gold tetras (?)
- Apistogramma steindachneri
- Hoplias aimara
All photos by J. Cardwell, S. Jack, J. Zaradka and V. Kutty
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