BSKM 1999 – Searching for Livebearers in Mexico
Abstract of the lecture by Brian Kabbes
part of the Poecilia Netherlands symposium on livebearing fish
Maarn, the Netherlands, 17 & 18 November 2000
- During this lecture-cum-slide show, the audience will be taken to the North
of Mexico where Simone and Brian Kabbes made a 4-week field trip in November and
December 1999. On 46 locations samples and fishes were collected, photos were
taken. In total 48 species of livebearers (Poeciliidae and Goodeidae) were
caught and observed.
- The year 1999 was very dry and this had many consequences for the vulnerable biotopes in which many Highland carp live. Since Simone and Brian were also in the Highlands in 1998, they could often observe these dramatic changes.
- The expedition starts at the village of San Marcos, Jalisco. This is the only
place where a certain tooth carp can be found, the one known as Xenotoca
eiseni ‘San Marcos’. Concerning the status of this species there is
still a lot unclear; it is possible that it is a representative of a totally new
genus. Anyway, Simone and Brian found this species in 1998 in only one, much
polluted brook. In 1999, this stream turned out to be completely dried out and
so all fish were lost. After intensive sample collections in the wider area of
the village of San Marcos, three new collecting locations were discovered. So,
for the time being there is still hope for these beautiful fishes.
- After crossing the impressive Sierra Madre Occidental, the trip was continued on the highlands in the environs of the city Durango in the state of the same name. In this dry and desolate landscape, the last refuges of the surviving Characodon species are to be found. These species appear to have a great variety in free nature. This triggers the thought that both described species (C. audax and C. lateralis) possibly belong to the same species.
- In the North of Mexico, around the city of Parras de Fuente one female
specimen of the third Characodon species was once caught and described. Simone
and Brian were looking for this illustrious species, but only could find one
other livebearer is these inaccessible wastelands. The guppy.
- The journey continues in the direction of the State of Zacatecas, where the
home of Xenoophorus captivus lies in equally forbidding deserts. Because
of the great drought, collection in the practically dried out typos finding
place was impossible, but a new highly attractive (and completely new) form was
found South of Zacatecas city.
- After the drought of the northern highland states the Panuco basin on the east coast was like an oasis. Here live many swordtails, of which some will be presented in their natural habitat, together with sympatric living species.
- The journey continues in the direction of the State of Zacatecas, where the
home of Xenoophorus captivus lies in equally forbidding deserts. Because
of the great drought, collection in the practically dried out typos finding
place was impossible, but a new highly attractive (and completely new) form was
found South of Zacatecas city.
- The endemic highland carp Girardinichthys viviparus used to live in great numbers around Mexico City. Among other places in the large lake of Zumpango. Why this species has disappeared from this location will be made clear by the slides.
- A closely related species, Girardinichthys multiradiatus, lives on the
West side of Mexico City. This species has also declined in numbers, due to the
ever-increasing influence of man. A particularly attractive form was found near
Tecoac.
- Back in the West highlands, the in many ways characteristic brook of San Juan de los Arcos is described. The strain of Zoogeneticus quitzeoensis that lives here is very attractively coloured.
- In 1998, Simone and Brian Kabbes happened upon a hitherto never sampled collecting place in the neighbourhood of the city of Los Reyes de Salgado. The Allotoca species found here were so different from formerly described species that it possibly concerns a new species or an aberrant strain of A. regalis. Time will tell.
- The journey ends where it began, at San Marcos, where one of the last wild
populations of Xenotoca eiseni ‘San Marcos’ is clinging to its life
in a drying puddle.
- Link to more reports of journeys by Brian and Simone Kabbes, to be found on their own site and that of Poecilia Nederland. Click the icons!
