Freshwater fishes of the Bahia State, Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

This work was carried out from the assessment of the conservation status of the freshwater ichthyofauna from Bahia State. The inventory data and species distribution were obtained from the specialized scientific literature and representative ichthyological collections. A total of 281 native species was recorded in Bahia State, distributed in the Northeastern Mata Atlantica (NMA) and São Francisco (SFR) freshwater ecoregions. There was a larger number of species in the NMA (187 spp.), composed by several coastal basins, than in the SFR (134 spp.), composed by São Francisco river basin. Among the 30 families recorded, Characidae and Rivulidae were the most representative, with 53 and 48 species, respectively. The conservation status of 214 species was assessed and 33 of them (15%) were included in the IUCN threat categories. Of these, 11 species were classified as vulnerable (VU), 12 as endangered (EN), and 10 as critically endangered (CR). Most threatened species (n = 14) belongs to the family Rivulidae. The larger number of threatened species in the NMA: (n = 23) is mainly related to the high endemism of restricted-range species associated with the human occupation impacts along the coastal regions. In the SFR, most of threatened species are annual killifishes, which are locally disappearing due to increasing degradation of their temporary habitats.

Length–weight relationship for ten native fish species captured in the streams of the Contas River basin, Northeastern Mata Atlântica freshwater ecoregion, Brazil

“…The fish were identified according to Menezes et al, (2007), Buckup et al, (2007), Burger et al, (2011, Zanata (2014), andSilva et al, (2020). All scientific names, authors, years and Family assignments were checked against Fishbase (Froese & Pauly, 2021).…”

The rediscovery of Pimelodella longipinnis (Borodin, 1927), an enigmatic Atlantic Rainforest catfish species from Southeastern Brazil (Siluriformes: Heptapteridae)

“…Additional discussion on such matters can be found in Slobodian & Pastana (2018). It is worth mentioning that a recently published work on Heptapteridae relationships using molecular data (Silva et al, 2021) recovered Pimelodella as a polyphyletic genus of the subfamily Rhamdiinae. However, the authors did not include species of Rhamdella neither Pimelodella leptosoma-group in their analysis.…”

“…However, the closeness of these drainages to large metropolitan centers, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, has historically posed a series of risks to fishes inhabiting these areas. Currently, these taxa are among the most threatened due to habitat destruction, introduction of non-native species, pollution, among other anthropic deleterious activities (Agostinho et al, 2007;Silva et al, 2020).…”

A new species of Astronotus (Teleostei, Cichlidae) from the Orinoco River and Gulf of Paria basins, northern South America

“… Kullander (1981 , 1983 , 1986 ) reviewed the taxonomy of Astronotus and considered only two nominal species as valid: (1) Astronotus ocellatus (Agassiz, 1831 in Spix and Agassiz 1829). Type locality Atlantic Ocean (error), types in ZSM (lost) distributed in western Amazon and Orinoco basins, with established populations introduced in others states of Brazil as Bahia, Ceará, Espirito Santo, Maranhão, and Piauí states ( Burger et al 2011 ; Leão et al 2011 ; Ramos et al 2014 , 2018 ; Silva et al 2020 ) and outside of South America e.g. Singapore ( Ng et al 1993 ), Canada ( Coker et al 2001 ), China ( Ma et al 2003 ), Hawaii ( Mundy 2005 ), Poland ( Solarz 2005 ), Australia ( Hammer et al 2012 ; ACTFR 2014 ), USA ( Robins et al 1991 ; Fuller et al 1999 ; Nico et al 2019 ; Rodríguez-Barrera et al 2020 ), and Italy ( Lorenzoni et al 2019 ) and (2) Astronotus crassipinnis (Heckel, 1840).…”