Peru 2016

[Ken+]

Hi guys! I've been busy with my thesis and haven't been around much here. But I was able to take a trip to Peru at the end of July to mid August. This report is a little late since there were fish that were very difficult to identify. There are still some fish we're not sure of.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this virtual trip to Peru!

This trip almost didn't happened TWICE! But I was glad to make the sacrifices to make it happen in the end. Full story on the blog. I spent roughly one week around Cusco and one week in the Peruvian Amazon close to Iquitos. Most of the fishing was done in the Amazon, but I was happy to catch at least one Andean species and two saltwater species. This visit to Peru also allowed me to check off another continent which I have fished. Now I just need Africa and Antarctica !

The full blog starts here on Day 1 (I'm sure you can navigate through the other days on my blog):

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca ... day-1.html

Here are some selected photos. Lots more on my blog.

Cusco











Pisac







Ollantaytambo







Salkantay hike - Highest I've ever hiked so far (4600m)...while having a bout of food poisioning!















Machu Picchu







Peruvian Amazon

















Some interesting food

Guinea pig



Alpaca



Palm weevil larvae



Breaded Arapaima



~~~~~~

And finally, roughtly 50 species from fish from Peru caught on this trip.

Acrobrycon ipanquianus - Species #579



Serrasalmus rhombeus - Species #580 (Red eye and thick black margin on the tail ID this as S. rhombeus)



Pirapitinga (Piaractus brachypomus) - Species #581



Red Piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri) - Species #582



Bloch's Catfish (Pimelodus blochii) - Species #583



Sorubim maniradii - Species #584 (black stripe seems diffuse to me)



Cynodon gibbus - Species #585 (little cousin to the well known Payara. The Payara has much shorter anal fin)



Ageneiosus ucayalensis - Species #586



Triportheus angulatus - Species #587



Tetragonopterus argenteus - Species #588



Stethaprion crenatum - Species #589



Triportheus albus - Species #590



Flatwhiskered Catfish (Pinirampus pirinampu) - Sepcies #591



Trahira (Hoplias malabaricus) - Species #592



Spotted Pike-characin (Boulengerella maculata) - Species #593



Brycon melanopterus - Species #594



Mesonauta mirificus - Species #595 (updated)



Crenicichla semicincta - Species #596 (Green diagonal bands on the body is the ID key)



Leporinus moralesi - Species #597 (This species was determined base on range. L. moralesi is found in Peru)



Blue Whale Catfish (Cetopsis coecutiens) - Species #598



Pterodoras granulosus - Species #599



Cichla monoculus - Species #600!!!



Brycon cephalus - Species #601 (Still trying to determine if it really is B. cephalus)



Tucan Fish (Chalceus erythrurus) - Species #602



Spotfin Hatchetfish (Thoracocharax stellatus) - Species #603



Rhamdia quelen - Species #604 (updated)



Hypselecara temporalis - Species #605



Ageneiosus inermis - Species #606



Spotted sorubim (Pseudoplatystoma corruscans) - Species #607



Brachyplatystoma vaillantii - Species #608



Zamurito (Calophysus macropterus) - Species #609



Unknown - Species #610 (still being determined)



Ctenobrycon hauxwellianus - Species #611



Aequidens tetramerus - Species #612 (we think these are A. tetramerus...still checking)



Brachychalcinus sp. - Species #613 (some thinks it is B. copei, but I'm not so sure)



Bujurquina syspilus - Species #614



Mylossoma aureum - Species #615



Roeboides myersii - Species #616



Pimelodella cristata - Species #617 (I'm certain it is a Pimelodella, and P. cristata seems the closest)



Aimara (Hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus) - Species #618



Erythrinus erythrinus - Species #619



Bandtail Tetra (Moenkhausia dichroura) - Species #620



Glass tetra (Moenkhausia oligolepis) - Species #621



Moenkhausia chrysargyrea - Species #622 (updated)



Astyanax sp. - Species #623 (In the publication Ornamental Fishes of Peru, this was listed as an Astyanax sp., but no one seems to know which species it is)



Twospot Astyanax (Astyanax bimaculatus) - Species #624



Moenkhausia colletti - Species #625 (Still trying to verify this)



Pimelodella gracilis - Species #626 (There are so many similar Pimelodella species, still not sure which one)



Moenkhausia lepidura - Species #627



Giant Blenny (Scartichthys gigas) - Species #628



Chalapo Clinid (Labrisomus philippii) - Species #629



Updated:

Cichlasoma amazonarum - Species #630 - Technically, it was caught in the same pond as Aequidens teramerus, so really should be Species #613 and everything after gets pushed back a number. But I'm not going to edit that number here. This species was ID'd by 4 anal spines and several rows of scales on the posterior rays of the dorsal and anal fins.

[BEOWULF]

Awesome posting!

I thought the list of fish would never end, but did enjoy it. Did I see some blind cave catfish in there? Also, it seems the majority of the fish have ragged fins, as in bacteria eaten.

[kblue]

I really enjoyed this one...
what kinda of camera did you use to take these pic? just asking because pic quality is very good...

[Ken+]

Awesome posting!

I thought the list of fish would never end, but did enjoy it. Did I see some blind cave catfish in there? Also, it seems the majority of the fish have ragged fins, as in bacteria eaten.

You're probably talking about the Blue Whale Catfish? No, they don't live in caves. They are pretty weird though - looks real docile in appearance, but their strong jaw bites into the mid section of an animal so the fish can burrow into the cavity, then they would eat the animal from inside out. It's quite creepy.

I think healthy animals and humans has little to worry about. But weakened or dead animals should be scared of them.

As for the ragged fins, that's due to piranha bites, bacteria is only subsequent to the initial injury due to the piranhas.

[Ken+]

I really enjoyed this one...
what kinda of camera did you use to take these pic? just asking because pic quality is very good...

I use a Canon A620. It's an old point and shoot camera, but is has a pretty good macro feature (down to 1cm) and a decent depth of field for regular shooting. Colour is a little flat due to the sensor, so I usually work on the photos in Photoshop to bring out the original colour that I see by eye.

[BEOWULF]

You're probably talking about the Blue Whale Catfish? No, they don't live in caves. They are pretty weird though - looks real docile in appearance, but their strong jaw bites into the mid section of an animal so the fish can burrow into the cavity, then they would eat the animal from inside out. It's quite creepy.

Yes, that's the one. Sheesh, who knew it would be such a nasty bugger!

[clarence2society]

thank you for an awesome vicarious trip to peru