Paedocypris progenetica - Smallest vertebrate described!

[kuching]

I think Mr tree one is from Sumatra? I never brought him to catch the Sarawak one before.

[budak]

My review of the fish is here.

[kuching]

Interviewed with Dr Tan:

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story...490&sec=nation

[budak]

Some new pictures of the fish can be seen here, but more importantly are the links provided calling for awareness and action to save the region's least known biodiversity hotspots (and the source of many of our most beautiful fishes)!

[na_cheers]

Jan. 25, 2006 — Scientists from Europe and Singapore say they have discovered the world's tiniest fish, a species that lives in peat wetlands in Southeast Asia and, when fully grown, is the size of a large mosquito.

The record-busting newcomer to the biodiversity book, Paedocypris progenetica, is a distant cousin of the carp, said the discoverers, who publish their findings on Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a British journal.

Skinny and transparent, the elusive fish lives in highly-acid peat swamps on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and in the Malaysian parts of Borneo that are threatened by forestry and agriculture.

[budak]

Update on the status of the fish in West Malaysia, from a researcher who worked with Dr. Tan HH:

I was supposed to study the behaviour of Paedocypris for my Research project in NUS.

JANUARY 2005
I visited North Selangor Peat Swamp (NSPSF) with Dr Tan in January 2005 to collect this fish. We visited all the sites that the fish had been previously collected. We could not catch a single fish. On top of that, of other peat swamp species, we caught fewer fish species than previous collections in NSPSF.

This may have been because of two reason, 1) The fish is seasonal, 2) North Selangor was in the process of being drained for agriculture, the disturbance may have caused the species to go extinct.

JULY 2005
I visited these same sites in July 2005. By this time the swamp was in worse condition. The streams were all nearly dry and overgrown with vegetation, we sampled here and again found no Paedocypris, and found even fewer fish species than we had in January.

OVERVIEW
50 species of fish have been collected from North Selangor Peat swamp forest (NSPSF), 20 of which can only survive in the acid water conditions of peat swamp forests, and a further 5 species restricted to NSPSF.

Paedocypris sp.
Betta livida
Betta hipposideros
Parosphromenus harveyi
Encheloclarias curtisoma

North Selangor is nearly completely dry, in the process of being logged and converted to agriculture. If not alreay extinct, Paedocypris and the other 4 species listed above are safely on the way to extinction....

The profile of the known Selangor habitat is detailed here.

[spinex]

It's really sad that these unique fish is going to be extinct soon. Hope the government will come up with some conversation effort to preserve some area from logging so these fish can continue to thrive in their natural environment.

Too much fauna and fishes are unknown in SEA. I guess most even extinct without us knowing they exist ...