Ichthyofauna of the Parnaíba river Basin, Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

The Parnaíba River is the largest hydrographic basin with its limits entirely within the northeastern region of Brazil. It is one of the few perennial rivers in the Brazilian Northeastern Region, running predominantly in the area of Caatinga on the eastern portion (with intermittent drainages associated to this type of environment), and partly extending into the Cerrado region on the western portion. The objective of this study was to describe the diversity of freshwater fishes of the Parnaíba River basin by conducting a comprehensive ichthyofauna inventory of the basin. The sampling design of this study was based on the placement of (1) Fixed Sites for seasonal collection (dry and wet season, two years) in the three portions of the main course of the Parnaíba River, and (2) ''Aquarap'' protocol collections which covered the entire basin. The collection effort consisted of 244 sampling sites surveyed along the entire basin between the years 2004 and 2011. Fish were collected with the use of seines, cast nets, gill nets and dip nets; only the first two fishing gears were used in Fixed Sites. As a result, 146 species of freshwater fish were recorded in the Parnaíba River basin, distributed in 103 genera, 36 families and 11 orders. The registered endemism reached a total of 54 species.

Ichthyofauna of coastal lakes and the Igaraçu River in Ilha Grande, Delta do Parnaíba, Parnaíba, Piauí State, northeastern Brazil

“…The species collected in the present study are equivalent to 17.4% of the species listed by Rosa et al (2003) for the Maranhão-Piauí part of the northeastern ecoregions 323 and 325 of Abell et al (2008) and 11.6% of species recorded in the Parnaíba River basin by Ramos et al (2014). Six species, Cichlasoma orientale, Curimata macrops, Crenicihla menezesi, Geophagus parnaibae, Roeboides sazimai, are endemic to the Brazilian Caatinga (Rosa et al 2003;Lucena 2007) Maranhão/Parnaíba rivers (Vari 1991;Rosa et al 2003;Staeck and Schindler 2006;Barros et al 2011).…”

“…This information source enabled Albert et al (2011) to characterize the fish fauna o Parnaiba River as potentially diverse with an estimative of about 95 species. Ramos et al (2014) recorded 146 freshwater fish species for the basin. The literature on the ichthyofauna of the lower Parnaíba River basin is scarce and deals about identification of commercial fishes (Melo 2012;Nóbrega et al 2010).…”

Redescription of Hypostomus johnii, a senior synonym of Hypostomus eptingi (Siluriformes: Loricariidae), Northeastern Brazil

“…However, despite extensive sampling of the basin, the occurrence of Hypostomus auroguttatus and H. plecostomus was not confirmed (Ramos, 2012;Ramos et al, 2014;Silva et al, 2015), whereas, Hypostomus johnii and H. vaillanti were confirmed as occurring in the basin.…”

“…The river is about 1400 km long with its hydrographic basin occupying an area of 344,112 km 2 (3.9% of Brazil), draining almost the entire state of Piauí (99%) and part of Maranhão (19%) and Ceará (10%) states. It is one of the few perennial rivers in the Brazilian Northeastern Region, running predominantly in the Caatinga biome in the east (with intermittent drainages associated with this type of environment), and partly extending into the Cerrado biome in the west (Rosa et al, 2003;Ramos et al, 2014).…”

First record of Arapaima gigas (Schinz, 1822) (Teleostei: Osteoglossomorpha), the “pirarucu”, in the upper Paraná River basin, Southeast Brazil

“…The Grande River and other major rivers in the Paraná River basin were transformed in cascading reservoir systems, with lentic characteristics in most sites that resemble those of the original habitat of the "pirarucu" (Ferreira 2013). In Brazil, other confirmed records of the "pirarucu" outside their original geographic distribution are from the upper Parnaíba River (Ramos et al 2014) and the upper Madeira River (Ferreira 2013). Notwithstanding, to our knowledge, there is no assessment evaluating the consequences of Arapaima introduction on the native fauna.…”