Ichthyofaunistic composition of the Quilombo river, tributary of the Mogi-Guaçu river, upper Paraná river basin, southeastern Brazil

Abstract

A study about fish composition in the Quilombo river, of the upper Paraná hydrographic system, is presented. We aimed to identify which species inhabit this small river, to verify the frequency they occur and to study the longitudinal distribution of the ichthyofauna. Fish were sampled for a period of one year and ten months (September 2003 to June 2005) at four collection sites defined through the river basin, comprising dry and wet seasonal periods. Trawlnet, gillnets, seine net, sieves and hooks were used for fish sample. Fish collected were immediately fixed in 10% formalin solution. In the laboratory specimens were preserved in ethanol 70%, identified and deposited in the fish collection of the Laboratório de Ictiologia Sistemática (LISDEBE) of the Departamento de Ecologia e Biologia Evolutiva of the Universidade Federal de São Carlos. An amount of 2982 specimens belonging to 6 orders, 19 families, 52 genera and 68 species were collected. The orders Characiformes (57.3%) and Siluriformes (30.9%) predominated in terms of species richness. The orders Gymnotiformes, Cyprinodontiformes, Perciformes and Synbranchiformes summed 11.8% of total fish richness. The analysis of constancy revealed that the ichthyofaunistic composition in the middle and lower sampled stretches suffered higher temporal variability in comparison to upper stretches of Quilombo river basin. The similarity (Jaccard index) among samples showed that each collection site have distinct assemblages of fish.