Please help find our Missing Fishes

[wks]

I just read the photographic guide “Wild Animals of Singapore” with special interest in our native freshwater fishes. After going through the 30 species in that section, I realized that some of the indigenous species such as Systomus hexazona, Boraras maculata, Rasbora bankanensis etc are not listed in the guide. These missing fishes were mentioned in “A Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of Singapore” which was first published in 1990. I just hope the good people of Nature Society (Singapore) might have missed these aquatic jewels and they are still around somewhere in our local streams and ponds. The fishes covered in this 2008 guide are true freshwater fishes, so those living in brackish water are being left out.

Guys, if you happen to come across some of these fishes during your field trips, please inform NSS by submitting the Vertebrate Sightings Submission Form whish is available in www.ecologyasia.com

The following missing fishes are compiled by comparing the current guide with the 1990 guide.
Missing Indigenous Fishes
1) Systomus hexazona (Six-banded Barb)
2) Boraras maculata (Pygmy Rasbora)
3) Rasbora bankanensis (Banka Rasora)
4) Pangio semicincta (Banded Coolie Loach)
5) Glyptothorax major (Wrinkle-bellied Catfish)
6) Parakysis verrucosus (Little Warty Catfish)
7) Stigmatogobius poecilosoma (Pond Goby)

[hwchoy]

2) is Boraras maculatus by rule of latin grammar.

(1) and (2) is still easily found. (4) do you refer to the banded or the spotted kuhli loach?

[wks]

Thanks for your feedback, Choy. I copied the word from the 1990 guide.

According to the 2008 guide, only Pangio muraeniformis (spotted kuhli loach) is listed. No mention of the banded kuhli loach at all.

The full list from the 2008 guide

1) Cyclocheilichthys apogon
2) Rasbora einthovenii
3) Rasbora elegans
4) Systomus banksi (According to the authors, this fish was wrongly identified as Puntius binotatus in older publications.)
5) Systomus lateristriga
6) Trigonostigma heteromorpha
7) Nemacheilus selangoricus
Pangio muraeniformis
9) Silurichthys hasseltii
10) Clarias batrachus
11) Clarias leiacanthus ( formerly as Clarias teijsmanni)
12) Clarias nieuhofii
13) Dermogenys collettei (According to the authors, this fish was wrongly identified as Dermogenys pusilla in older publications.)
14) Hemirhamphodon pogonognathus
15) Aplocheilus panchax
16) Poecilia reticulata (Introduced)
17) Monopterus albus
1 Nandus nebulosus
19) Oreochromis mossambicus (Introduced)
20) Oxyeleotris marmorata
21) Anabas testudineus
22) Luciocephalus pulcher
23) Trichopsis vittata
24) Betta pugnax
25) Trichogaster trichopterus
26) Channa striata
27) Channa gachua
2 Channa lucius
29) Channa melasoma
30) Channa micropeltes (Introduced)

I did not include the common names as this may cause confusion.

[Quixotic]

7) Stigmatogobius poecilosoma (Pond Goby)

The scientific name in the 1990 book is a tentative identification. The latest Raffles Bulletin of Zoology publication by Helen Larson mention that the actual pond goby of Singapore included two species, Pseudogobiopsis oligactis and Pseudogobiopsis siamensis.

However, they are believed to be either very rare or locally extinct. The common pond goby you see now is possibly the introduced species, Rhinogobius giurinus.

See post #9 from a previous thread on the common pond goby, http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...d.php?p=320131

[Stuporman]

Glyptothorax is extinct in Singapore (my opinion, but backed by strong circumstantial evidence). BTW, the local species is not G. major (which is endemic to Borneo), but G. callopterus (also found along the entire length of the Malay Peninsula and in Banka).

Parakysis is almost extirpated in Singapore (it is almost certainly extinct in its type locality).