Most of my collecting so far has been in eastern Panama, east of the city, but Tuesday we headed west over the Bridge of the America’s, along the Panamanian highway to Campana a small Pueblo about an hour east of Panama City, and a short distance north off the main highway.
The town sits next to the Campana river, where a couple small rock and sandbag dams have been set up in the park to back up the water enough, to provide a swimming hole for the locals.
Like most of the rivers visited so far, it was devoid of any aquatic plants.
The water was clear, had a slight current, and the substrate is strewn with small stones, and rocks, up to immovable boulders.
Tetras were easily seen, and each cast of the net brought up a half dozen or so, but nothing else until my driver Danni spotted a large shrimp, and asked for the net, it turned out to be one of the largest of this type, I’ve seen so far.
It spanned almost the entire diameter of my 5 gallon bucket.
After my cast attempts yielded only tetras, Danni waded up stream, and found a comparatively deep hole, cast into it and brought up 1 cichlid, a 2-3” Andinoacara coerleopunctatus.
Not what I was looking for, but a good way to test how cichlids coexist with the shoal of Pimlodella catfish in the tank.
It, the 3 tetras that tumbled in the bucket with it, and the shrimp made the trip to my tank that afternoon alive.
The biggest concern with these trips, is keeping the water in the bucket from overheating, and turning anoxic, so I keep a battery operated air pump going. I also add cool bottled water as the day roles on.
During the trip the pump gets plugged into the cars adapter, and while waiting for the ferry, the cargo guys, plug it into a truck adapter port.
As with all my collecting forays, I test the water for pH and nitrate.
As usual nitrate was undetectable, (the tube on the left above), and pH was slightly lower than the eastern waters. 7.4-7.6, using the high range reagent.
The next day (it always seems the 1st 24 hours is the most critical) the 3 tetras and Andinoacara made it thru the night, can’t tell about the shrimp so far.
Turned out to be 2 species of tetras.
One either Bryconamericas, or Astyanax, the 2nd genus Roeboides..
The cichlid, is still in hiding, yet I've caught a few glimpses.
