Fish, upper Purus River, state of Acre, Brazil

Abstract

The ichthyofauna of the headwaters of the main tributaries of the mighty Solimões/Amazonas River  has been little studied. Considering the importance of those environments for the overall fish  diversity in that river system, we surveyed the composition of the fish fauna of the upper portion  of Purus River and two of its tributaries (Caeté and Macapá rivers), state of Acre, Brazil. The collections were done in November 2004, using a seine net and a set of gillnets of different mesh  sizes. A total of 735 specimens belonging to 86 species and 28 families were collected. Eight  species, Creagrutus occidaneus, Phenacogaster pectinatus, Prionobrama filigera, Moenkhausia cf.  lepidura, Leptagoniates pi (Characidade), Henonemus punctatus (Trichomycteridae), Toracocharax  stellatus (Gateropelecidae), and Eigenmannia macrops (Sternopygidae) composed nearly half of the  specimens collected. This survey adds 48 new records to the ichthyofauna of Purus River and  elevates to 243 the number of known fish species in that river, but a greater sampling effort is necessary to produce a reasonably complete picture of the fish diversity in the basin.