Cave-climbing catfish discovered in Ecuador

[WillParkinson]

Whilst climbing through a cave system on the western slopes of Tena, Ecuador, the last thing you might expect to find when looking up is a catfish. But that’s exactly what happened when an international research team was making a flora and fauna inventory of a cave located in the Napo District.

The group of cavers found the fish climbing up a near vertical flowstone waterfall, with some individuals reaching heights of up to three meters (10 feet). Whilst it’s not too unusual for some catfish to make forays out of the water and up rocky rapids, this is the first time it has been documented in this species, and the first time it’s been seen happening in a cave for the armored catfish family to which it belongs.

The researchers were able to identify the fish as Chaetostoma microps, a species that usually lives in the upper reaches of the Amazon and is endemic to Ecuador and Peru. The species is normally known to eat algae, so the reasons for why it was found living in the caves has led to some speculation. The authors of the report, published in the journal Subterranean Biology, suggest that they might simply be passing through the cave system, or could possibly be grazing on microbial films found in the cave streams.

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/cave-climbing-catfish-discovered-ecuador

[left-of-center2012]

1. The fish ordinarily uses its sucker-shaped mouth to attach to things such as rocks and trees

amazing