“…For instance, macroinvertebrates living on macrophytes and in the root zones of floating mats are using this habitat for shelter and food resource, serving also as primary food supply for fish and other vertebrates (primarily amphibians, reptilians and birds; Junk, 1973;Poi de Neiff & Carignan, 1997;Poi de Neiff, 2003;Takeda, Souza-Franco, Melo, & Monkolski, 2003). Furthermore, aquatic vegetation represents a key factor in the selection of habitats by fish (Chick & Mcivor, 1997;Gomes, Bulla, Agostinho, Vasconcelos, & Miranda, 2012), serving as refuge to avoid predators (Chick & Mcivor, 1997;Warfe & Barmuta, 2004), as spawning habitat, and as nurseries for initial life stages and juveniles (Grenouillet & Pond, 2001;Bulla, Gomes, Miranda, & Agostinho, 2011).The 'Zapatosa Floodplain Lake Complex' (ZFLC) and its associated wetlands, part of an even larger floodplain system called the Mompox Depression, is considered one of the most important freshwater ecosystems of the Magdalena River basin in Northern Colombia. in spite of its importance, hydrobiological information on the river basin is practically inexistent, dealing mostly with the local inventory and ecology of fish assemblages (Ríos-Pulgarín, Jiménez-Segura, Palacio, & Ramírez Restrepo, 2008), aquatic and wetland plants (SchmidtMumm, 1987), and a generalized overview on macrophyte vegetation (Rangel-Ch., 2010).…”