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Saramacca River, Suriname
Bits of nature along the way.
Saramacca River flows north into the Atlantic. We stopped here because, well, besides being a cool place to collect, Jeff had caught a Crenicichla nickeriensis here the previous year. The species is not supposed to be found here, but you cant argue with nature. Anyway, we did not catch any here this time.
This is the black water creek flowing into the Saramacca River, on the satellite image above, just to the north on the right bank. This is the type of creek where I expected to find Keyhole cichlids. But we did not see a single specimen, anywhere in Suriname. The species is very uncommon in its habitat. Jaap Jan deGreef of Florida used to live in Suriname about 20 or so years ago and he says that in his two years of living and collecting in Suriname, he did not catch a single Keyhole cichlid!
I feel better.
What looks like a concrete bridge from the sky is actually a rickety wooden bridge that makes you question your decision to get to the other side while your're half-way across.
Riverside habitat
A young Aequidens tetramerus (?). If this is indeed an Aequidens species, it is odd that Kullander's 'The Cichlids of Surinam' says they are found almost everywhere in Suriname except for the odd distribution gap in the Saramacca drainage. The other Aequidens species in Suriname is A. paloemeuensis found only in Paloemeu River near the Brazil border.
If you look at the anal fin, you may see 4 spines. I cant tell with certainty, but if there are 4 spines, that makes it a Cichlasoma bimacualtum.
A young Cichla ocellaris.
A female Crenicichla nickeriensis caught by Jeff earlier in the year (March 2005) in the same spot. At first I thought it was just a more colorful C. saxatilis. After all, it had the characteristic notch on its dorsal blotch that's supposed to be unique to C. saxatilis. However, this is not C. saxatilis. It matches C. nickeriensis. But...nickeriensis is not supposed to be found in the Saramacca. C. nickeriensis are supposed to be found a hundred or more kilometer to the west. Oh well. Fish are found where they are found. So we went back to the same spot hoping to catch a few more. We didnt. We caught a few further west in one of the tributaries of the Coesewijne.
Acestrorhynchus falcatus
Species seen on Saramacca:
- Cichla ocellaris
- Aequidens tetramerus
- Loricaria sp.
- Astyanax sp.
- Acestrorhynchus falcatus
- Crenicichla nickeriensis
All photos by J. Cardwell, S. Jack, J. Zaradka and V. Kutty
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