The fish of Dubai's desert lakes - part 2 underwater footage

[mattybecks]

People chucking them out of aquaria is my guess

There is little to no information out there about these lakes and nothing I could find on them, about the fish in them. Mostly just about the birds there.
That's why I wanted to started documenting these places in hopes of expanding knowledge about them and finding some answers. I realize that this may also have a negative effect alerting other (irresponsible) aquarists to these kinds of places which may increase the instances of dumping or people trying to catch them. Although I have not yet found any one else from Dubai on MFK here.

 

[mattybecks]

I would concur with Oreochromis mossambicus.

I grew up in Dubai. There used to be a pretty large reservoir out in the Hatta area, but it had sadly dried up when I had last visited the area around 15 years ago. But back in the 90s it was a pretty large body of water and was stocked with tilapia - both the WT grey variety and a red strain. I managed to net some some of the red fry and maintained a colony in small pond in my backyard for a few years. Amazingly resilient fish.

Dubai’s a completely different place now but your posts make me nostalgic.

Thanks the_deeb, I didn't realize there were tilapia in there. I have only passed through Hatta once or twice on my way to Oman, but from what I understand there are still quite a few larger bodies of water still around there. Maybe ill do some filming there this coming week. Due to Eid break there are public holidays here till June 9th for me

 

[mattybecks]

So just to recap, it seems like majority of the species in these lakes are from the Oreochromis genus.
Some general info from Wikipedia about them:

"Oreochromis is a large genus of tilapiine cichlids, fishes endemic to Africa and the Middle East. Several species from this genus have been introduced far outside their native range, and are important in aquaculture. Members of this genus, as well as those of the genera Tilapia and Sarotherodon, share the common name "tilapia".

The genus contains more than 30 species, and numerous undescribed forms exist. Research is hampered because hybridization runs rampant in these fishes, which confounds mtDNA data (see discussion at Wami tilapia), and the fast speed of evolution makes choice of appropriate nuclear DNA sequences difficult."

Which would explain why they are not all that easy to identify. A lot of cross breeding happening in those lakes I think.

 

[Ulu]

Species are created and go extinct faster than we can find them. The study of cichlids is like carrying water in a leaky bucket. It's gone before you can catch it. This is the bane of biological studies everywhere. As a computer guy and engineer I didn't understand this until I took up fishkeeping after retirement.

The bane of engineers is time. They must always answer the question, "How long will it take to do this thing nobody's exactly built before?" And we never really know. Whatever time is available, it's never what you'd want to do a perfect job.

The bane of programmers is the that modern systems have a factor of unpredictability, based on the fact that there are so many programs written, chances are nearly always unity that something will prove incompatible in the code between any two large pieces of software, even when written to work together.

Chaos in action. It's our condition.

 

[duanes]

I 'd be interested in seeing photos of the cichlids in the Oman natural lakes, who knows, could be an undescribed species? or similar to Iranocichla hormuzensus, which has been on my wish list for over 20 years.

 

[mattybecks]

I 'd be interested in seeing photos of the cichlids in the Oman natural lakes, who knows, could be an undescribed species? or similar to Iranocichla hormuzensus, which has been on my wish list for over 20 years.

Ill be going there in August/September time on a road trip with my brother. Ill see what I can find and document, and of course, keep the MFKers notified