51 replies to this topic

[Young]

 Except for the barbels, Triplophysa sellaefer reminds me of a Rhinichthys.

 It is amazing to see that the one subfamily of Cyprinidae we have in North America, Leuciscinae, evolves into so many different species, so different from each other, some of them look like Gobionidae, some look like Acheilognathinae, some look like Danioninae, and as you have mentioned, some even look like loaches. 

[NotCousteau]

I'm not sure what exact species of bitterlings my local store sells, but they look a lot like the ones you posted.

[Young]

I almost forgot this one, a close relative to Southern Redbelly Dace, Rhynchocypris oxycephalus, which was put in Phoxinus as Chrosomus was. The only thing is that it's not as colorful as Chrosomus species are. This fish can be found in upstream or headwaters of small size mountain creeks, and sometime, you can found only this species in headwaters. They are very typical cold water lovers, barely found from downstream of creeks and rivers. 

 

 

 

I got this one from a creek of Luo River Basin, which has hundreds of springs along it. The water is cool and Rhynchocypris oxycephalus are abundant from the headwaters to downstream. This one has a very sharp snout, which is a perfect example to explain the Chinese name for this fish, 尖头大吻鱥, which means sharp-snout and large-mouth dace. Only some really large adults have this feature.

 

 

Environment

 

 

This fish are common in the mountain creeks all the way from Liao River Basin of Nothern China to the Yangtze River basin of Southern China. The following are some of the pictures of the same species from Han River Basin in the south part of my hometown.

 

schooling in a tiny pond of a tiny creek (Han River Basin)

 

 

Got this one by a tiny hook with a very small steaming bread as bait.

 

environment, the water was bone chilling cold.

 

[Young]

I'm not sure what exact species of bitterlings my local store sells, but they look a lot like the ones you posted.

That's great to have bittelrings sold in a local store. I think the most common ones you can find in the United States is European bitterling and also I have saw some Chinese redtail bitterlings was sold by an online store.

[Young]

The following will be some species from the south part of my hometown. The whole county was divided into two parts by the Qinling Mountains. All the rivers in the north part flow into Luo River and finally Yellow River. All the rivers in the south part flow into Laoguan River and Qi River, and then flow into Han River, finally into Yangtze River. Similar, but different species can be found on the two sides of the divide. 

                          

First one is very similar to Gnathopogon tsinanensis, which is Gnathopogon imberbis. It was difficult for me to tell the difference between the two species in the beginning. While, after a fast reading the checklist for Gnathopogon, it became very easy.  The have different numbers of the lateral line scales.  34-36 for Gnathopogon tsinanensis comparing with 38-40 for  Gnathopogon imberbis, and you can only find G. tsinanensis in the Yellow Rivre basin, also G. imberbis in Han River and Jialing River Basin.

 

                          

Gnathopogon tsinanensis for comparing.

[Young]

Similar loaches can be found here in the south as well. Again, similar but different.

 

Cobitis rarus, Very beautiful loach with larch spots on the body. 

 

 

 

 

 

A comparison of the two Cobitis species.

 

 

 

[Young]

Trilophysa bleekeri, similar to Triplophysa sellaefer. 

 

 

[Young]

Freshwater gobies are very typical botteom dwellers in East Asia. I have found three speicies in my hometown, and have took photos for two of them. One is Rhinogobius cliffordpopei, the other one may be a new species which is close to Rhinogobius liui.

 

China has hundreds of Rhinogobius species in the mountain creeks and also large rivers across the country, just like darters in North America. What I could found in my hometown are not the best looking species, but they are beautiful in some way. The new species I found are unique to Laoguan River only. 

 

Rhinogobius liui?

Adult male

 

 

male juveniles, very obvious  individual difference

 

 

 

 

female

 

Another one is Rhinogobius cliffordpopei, which is wide spread through out China. 

 

[Young]

 Japanese Rice Fish, Oryzias latipes. Easy to be found in rice field. However, we have no rice field at all in my hometown as we grow wheat instead of rice as others do in Central and Northwest China. They are a kind of rare in mountainous area, as they prefer pond with dense vegetation which is rare in mountainous area like my hometown. They can only be found in several pond along Luo River that are formed by spring water.

 

Japanese Rice Fish is a far relative to killifish. The genus Oryzias has several species in China, well the population declined in Southern China because of pollution as well as the competition of invasive of Western Mosquito Fish.

 

[Young]

Other aquatic life that can be found in the creeks of my hometown. 

 

Tiny fresh water shrimp. We have at least three species of shrimp in my hometown. The other two are large, but I don't have any picture. This small one can be found in springs, creeks and even in wells. They feed on algae, and are very good algae remover in a native fish aquarium. The only thing is that they are too small, many creek fish feed on them ....

 

In their natural habitat.

 

 

 

 

In the tank

 

 

 

 

A kind of Gammaridea species, which is easy to be found in spring water. 

 

A creek crab species from Potamidae family. It was always a lot of fun to find and catch creek crabs in creeks and try to avoid their claws when I was young.

 

[Young]

 

In the end, pictures of rivers and creeks in my home town

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the END...

[Young]

Central China is not a place with a good diversity of fish species. In my hometown. One county, we have only about 40-50 fish species, and there is almost no endemic species at all. Well, if you go a little bit south, things are getting better. In fact the more you go south, the more fish species you can find. 

 

The most beautiful species usually come from several particular subfamilies or genera. Like most of the bitterlings from the subfamily of Acheilognathus, pale chubs from the genus of Zacco and Opsariichthys, fresh water goby from the genus of Rhinogobius, paradise fish from the genus of Macropodus. Since we don't have the diversity, I cannot tell you how beautiful they are here. but I will start another topic later to introduce some of them. 

[az9]

 

Thank you for sharing. Beautiful fish and pictures!

 

Do you ever see any exotic species? I.e. as an aquaculturist I know the Chinese are producing various species of trout and largemouth bass brought into China from the U.S.  And Ohio state had a Chinese gentlemen here for a while that was attempting to produce fast growing yellow perch and bluegill via genetic manipulation. 

 

No doubt predacious trout would be a disaster for the minnow species in your home waters. 

[MtFallsTodd]

Beautiful fish, the pale chub is amazing. Really liked the shrimp and leaches. Thanks for all the great pictures.

[Young]

Thank you for sharing. Beautiful fish and pictures!

 

Do you ever see any exotic species? I.e. as an aquaculturist I know the Chinese are producing various species of trout and largemouth bass brought into China from the U.S.  And Ohio state had a Chinese gentlemen here for a while that was attempting to produce fast growing yellow perch and bluegill via genetic manipulation. 

 

No doubt predacious trout would be a disaster for the minnow species in your home waters. 

invasive speicies is a huge problem in Southern China, but not really in my hometown. Rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon were introduced into a reservoir down stream, but they are limited in the reservoir as the water upstream is warm. Largemouth bass was introduced into a small reservoir in south part of my hometown last year as gamefish. I know a lot of anglers, based on the information collected from them. there is no sign that the fish has spread out. Blue gill and blue sunfish are becoming problems in Southern China, while the true problem in Southern China is the invasion of Western mosquito fish, red-eared slider (turtle), and red swamp crawfish. Also some tropical species like tilapia, swordtail and so on. Also, since China is as big as the United States. Invasive species from the same country but different regions is an issue too. 

[centrarchid]

Does the 尖头大吻鱥 roll stones while feeding?

[Young]

Does the 尖头大吻鱥 roll stones while feeding?

NO, they stay in the surface and middle-level of the water and feed on things from the surface more. 

[centrarchid]

What is the nose extension used for?  I looks very similar to the Log Perch.  

[Matt DeLaVega]

What is the nose extension used for?  I looks very similar to the Log Perch.  

It does. I was thinking it was familiar, but did not put it together.

[Doug_Dame]

Fascinating. And great photos. Thanks for taking the time to share this.

 

I didn't know that there were freshwater crabs.