Aquatic plant, + collecting in Lake Gatun

[duanes]

When I first moved to the island of Taboga, I asked about any fresh water ares, and ws told there weren't any. I had recently heard about 2 permanent pools, and they didn't contain fish, but sometimes had fresh water shrimp.
Went today into the forest, about half way up the mountain to check them out.

they were quite small, no shrimp, no fish, only thousands of tadpoles.

you can see the frog spawn above, just left of center near the log

The ponds were full of leaf litter, and the water was ttea colored.
Being quite anal I brought some testing reagents.

Even with all the rotting vegetation nitrate was non-detectable.

and pH @ 6

 

[dan518]

What size are the ponds? True fishkeeper taking your testing kit.

 

[duanes]

The ponds were down in a steep arroyo,
probably carved out over time, during the rainy seasons, oval shaped about 10 ft long, maybe 6 to 8 ft wide at the widest points, and because it is now the dry season, very shallow, only a ft or 2 deep at the deepest areas, and in some places only a few inches.
I was told they were once used as bathing pools for the locals, before a deal plant was installed. One designated just for women, one for the men.
They pools were quite ripe, leaves were constantly dropping in from the canopy, so I was surprised at the lack of nitrate under those conditions. I was hoping there'd be killi-fish that may go un-noticed by non-fish folk, but no such luck.

The terrain was a bit treacherous for an old scrape like me, but I got away without even so much as a flesh wound.

 

[dan518]

Surprised there is no aquatic life in there other then the tadpoles, like you I would have thought there would be killfish, shrimps in it. No injuries is always a bonus.

 

[duanes]

There were also dragonfly larvae, water beetles and snails along with the tadpoles. I believe being this far out in the Pacific probably stopped fresh water species from coming here. The toads, frogs, and reptiles, and mammals are often seen after storms riding on logs,
The island is inhabited by skinks, iguanas , coral snakes, and Emerald boas. I'm told there are tiny possums called neques, I've seen vampire and other bats, and there are small anteaters, but no mammals of any substantial size. A friend from the Netherlands was attacked by one of the anteaters one night in his yard, and they have been known to seriously tear up the local dogs.
There may have been sloths at one time, but I've never seen one.
No monkeys.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Awesome thread, one thing of note: those are American crocodiles, not salties.

 

[duanes]

Been working on getting reasonable shots of the mosquito fish, to see enough distinguishing characteristics to help determine species.
Making slow process, took about 50 shots this morning, and ended uppitiest with these 3.



The triangular dark blotch below the eye, and lunar row of dots on the caudal appears to suggest Gambusia nicaraguensis

 

[cockroach]

Nice shots. You improved very quickly.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Been working on getting reasonable shots of the mosquito fish, to see enough distinguishing characteristics to help determine species.
Making slow process, took about 50 shots this morning, and ended uppitiest with these 3.
View attachment 1356871
View attachment 1356872
View attachment 1356873
The triangular dark blotch below the eye, and lunar row of dots on the caudal appears to suggest Gambusia nicaraguensis

duanes , could they be gambusia affinis?

 

[duanes]

duanes , could they be gambusia affinis?

They could be affines, I suppose if your a lumper, then nicaraguense is simply a subspecies, or location variant of affines.
I'm using the book "Freshwater Fishes of Costa Rica" by William Bussing as my field guide (its geographic span covers most fishes of Central America, not only CR), Gunther used the name G. nicaraguense in the original description way back in 1866, and described their range from Ambergris Cay in Belize, to Lake Gatun here in Panama. The books first printing was 1987, so long before the use of DNA sequencing, and being quite old, many of the species listed now have redescribed genus names.