It is Moema juanderibaensis, the new species of fish for science that it is part of the family Rivulidae, that the researcher Heinz Arno Drawert vio for the first time in the 90’s in the town of Santa Rosa del Sara, in the eastern region of Santa Cruz, and that almost two decades after the repair. As he told the EFE Agency, in 2018 he began extensive research on Rivulidae fish in Bolivia, as an associate researcher at the “Noel Kempff Mercado” Natural History Museum, and after intense work over several years, in 2022 his research on this fish was published in the Neotropical journal. Ichthyology, one of the most recognized of fish research. As they point out, this peculiar fish It reaches about five centimeters; its body is greenish lead and has a pattern of colored dots; the fins, mainly the tail, are showy and large, and they live in puddles or certain temporary water ecosystems that are known as “curichis”, which “are inside the forest”, said the researcher. One of the main characteristics of this fish is “the adaptation of their eggs”, given that are buried in the mud and they can be “for long periods” without water, Well, the puddles dry up in days or weeks, and they can “survive” up to two to three years in that state.
“They bury their eggs at the bottom of the puddle of water, in the mud or earth, and leave them there and the puddle can dry out, but nothing happens to the eggs,” said the researcher who is also a member of the foundation. Killifish, dedicated to fish research. Furthermore, Drawert showed that when these fish are adults They come “voluntarily out of the water” and attach themselves to leaves or on top of plants and can stay for several hours. The researcher will observe it in this situation for four hours and it usually happens when it feels threatened by the presence of other fish. He also noted that these fish “change their respiration pattern,” which explains their resistance out of water, as they switch from using their gills to “dermal respiration,” which is characteristic of amphibians.
These small fish are “very sensitive to changes in their habitat” which are “well-preserved mountains” and when there is some type of intervention in the place, such as clearing or entering machinery, the fish disappear, in addition the eggs can’t stand too hot places without shade. “The last 20 to 30 years there has been a huge expansion of clearings, a large part of the habitat no longer exists, we can easily say that 60 to 70% of its natural habitat has disappeared,” Drawert emphasized. Although he said that there is hope for its conservation, since it is necessary to create “micro protected areas” in a small space for its conservation.
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