Fishes from Yarinacocha lake: an emblematic Amazonian ecosystem in the lower Ucayali River basin, Pucallpa, Peru

Authors

  • Katia Aylas Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3086-3830
  • Daniela Núñez-Rodriguez Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas
  • Hernán Ortega Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Museo de Historia Natural
  • José Carlos Riofrio Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Instituto Veterinario de Investigaciones Tropicales y de Altura (IVITA)
  • Raquel Siccha-Ramirez Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas
  • Rina Ramirez Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas
  • Jorge L. Ramirez Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8138-9203
  • Ricardo Britzke Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1042-2544

Abstract

Abstract The Yarinacocha lake is an emblematic ecosystem of the Peruvian Amazon, representing the main point of fish landing and a tourist attraction in the city of Pucallpa. The wide fauna diversity in this area has made it the target of various studies, although for fish species most of them were focused on commercial species. In this work, we carried out the first ichthyofauna species inventory of the Yarinacocha lake, sampling throughout the entire lake during the rainy and dry seasons and considering also all previously recorded species deposited in the Ichthyological Collection of the MUSM with the same locality. A total of 164 fish species were recorded, representing 10 orders (plus Eupercaria), 34 families and 116 genera. Characiformes was the order with more species (68 spp., 41.5%) followed by Siluriformes (59 spp., 36%), Cichliformes (17 spp., 10.5%), and Gymnotiformes (8 spp., 4.9%). The most highly represented families, including almost 55.5% of the total diversity obtained, were Characidae (23 spp., 14%), followed by Cichlidae (17 spp., 10.4%), Loricariidae (14 spp., 8.5%), Pimelodidae (13 spp., 7.9%), Doradidae (13 spp., 7.4%) and Anostomidae (12 spp., 7.3%). From the total fish species recorded in this study, only 22 are considered protected species following the IUCN criteria and 109 species have commercial importance, including 90 ornamental species (54.8%). Our results contribute to the knowledge of the ichthyofauna of the Yarinacocha lake and can be used as a starting point for its conservation and sustainable management over time.

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Published

2023-01-01

How to Cite

Aylas, K., Núñez-Rodriguez, D., Ortega, H., Riofrio, J. C., Siccha-Ramirez, R., Ramirez, R., Ramirez, J. L., & Britzke, R. (2023). Fishes from Yarinacocha lake: an emblematic Amazonian ecosystem in the lower Ucayali River basin, Pucallpa, Peru. Biota Neotropica, 23(1). Retrieved from //www.biotaneotropica.org.br/BN/article/view/1988

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