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Australia

Der Fische wegen habe ich mich im Oktober 2005 aufgemacht, um eine Fangreise in den Nordosten Australiens - nach Queensland - durchzuführen. Der Reisebericht gibt Eindrücke von der Flora und Fauna des tropischen Queenslands wieder. Süss-, Brack- und Meerwasserarten sind neben Biotopaufnahmen abgebildet.

Queensland - October 2005

China

Die südchinesische Insel hat fischkundlich Einiges zu bieten, ist allerdings bisher wenig erforscht, was in der Abschottung Chinas gegenüber dem nicht-sozialistischem Ausland begründet liegt. Wir haben 20 Biotope befischt und alte Bekannte wie wenig bekannte Arten gefangen. 

Shandong Province - December 2007

Wang Jing and I traveled to Guangxi Province, which possesses the highest number of different ethnic minorities in China. Some of them deeply influenced by neighbouring Vietnam, so is the ichthyofauna. We collected at different locations but mainly in the You River (右江) basin on the hunt for Balitoridae.

Guangxi Province - October 2007

A weekend trip in the heart of Shandong Province/Weifang County. Read a short article about how Wang Jing, Wang Zhongtao and I caught Macropodus ocellatus underneath a thin layer of ice.

Shandong Province - June 2007

A weekend trip to a huge water receptacle called Wangwushuiku (王吴水库) in Shandong Province. An interesting fish caught is Sarcocheilichthys nigripinnis (Günther 1873).

Hainan Island - March 2006

Zhejiang Province is located southern from Shanghai municipality. Five to six hours by car and you reach some fabulous fishing spots. The most frequent species we caught on this - unfortunately very limited - trip belongs to the genus Zacco. Z. platypus was ubiquitous. 

Brazil

Rio São Francisco - February 2008

Estados de Bahia and Minas Gerais. I stayed in Bom Jesus da Lapa, Guanambi and Januaria, in the center of the Simpsonichthys hot spot. Since each well planned expedition needs a target fish, I also had. Actually I had six targets, all of them Simpsonichthys. I did catch one of them: S. flagellatus from its terra typica. 

Estado do São Paulo - February 2008

A day trip to a friend’s rancho; I found a wonderful place 2 hours by car away from the megacity São Paulo. A torrent stream in residual Mata Atlantica in the Estado de São Paulo and some Brazilian game fishes.  

Rio São Francisco - August 2007

In August 2007 I was back on the Brazilian high plateau Plan Alto - again on the hunt for killies. Unfortunately all potential killifish biotopes were dried out. Some puddles still contained some rest water waiting for the next rainy season. I mainly caught characins and catfishes, among them some interesting species, for e.g. Acestrorhynchus lacustris (Lütken, 1875).

Rio São Francisco - April 2007

The target fish for this trip was unquestionable Simpsonichthys hellneri from it’s Terra typica located in the Rio São Francisco basin. I traveled through the Plan Alto in the states of Bahia and Minas Gerais mainly hunting for Cyprinodontiformes. See riverine and lacustrine species.

excursions

I am virtually permanently preparing for the next expedition. Although concentrating on Chinese freshwater systems with a focus on hillstream torrents my travels led me on different continents. With a little preparation and the availability of appropriate literature one can find interesting aquatic spots virtually everywhere on our planet. I have compiled travel reports of the most fabulous travel destinations.

Zhejiang Province - July 2006

Mexico

Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz - February 2009

The first trip serves basically to obtain a rough overview of flora and fauna. There was a target species in Oaxaca and Veracruz province, viz. Millerichthys robustus (Miller & Hubbs, 1974). I spent just two days searching for any evidence of occurrence. Did not find it.

Among fantastic biotopes the most inspiring location was the volcanic lake Laguna de Catemaco located in the center of the Sierra de los Tuxtlas close to the Caribbean sea.

Western Lesotho - April 2009

Lesotho

Lesotho is a tiny country enclave fringed by South African boundaries. Although it is a dry highland country with few freshwater resources the mighty Orange River, the biggest South African freshwater basin marking the borderline of Namibia and South Africa, has its headwaters in Lesotho. There was just one fishing spot around Mohalinyane.

Formerly known as British North Borneo the Malaysian province Sabah is gaining more international attention these days. Tourism and export are growing at a two digit rate. Deforestation for oil palm plantation are a common image when traveling through north Borneo. However, there are still plenty of pristine freshwater habitats mainly inhabiting cyprinids and balitorids.

Sabah, Borneo - June 2009

Malaysia

South Africa

Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal - April 2009

South Africa located at the southern tip of the African continent is mainly dry and hot. Hence, freshwater resources are scarce. However, I was able to find some interesting freshwater and brackish water fishes in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Turkey

West Central, Black Sea slope - May 2009

The freshwater ichthyofauna of Turkey is rather limited; the bulk consists of cyprinids living in the abundant rivers and lakes. This excursion belongs to my most unsuccessful collecting trips. However, I encountered beautiful lakes in West Central Turkey. Worth mentioning is certainly Lake Burdur and Lake Acigol.

Singapore

Aquarama, Farm Visits - June 2009

We attend the world’s leading and path breaking fair for fish keeping in Singapore. As a supplement to the fair there was one day of farm visits arranged by the organizer. One was able to get insight in the fish breeding and aquaristic wholesale business in Singapore. It is a multi million dollar business and, hence, rather important to the island’s economy. 

Shandong Province, Qingdao estuaries - multiple trips in 2008-2009

Living in Qingdao has a positive ancillary effect; I get used to the aquatic fauna of a Chinese temperate estuary ecosysteme. There are plenty of brackish wetlands along the northern coast of Qingdao, Shandong province. Here one can encounter fiddler crabs, mudskippers and much more.

Shandong Province - June 2009

A hunting trip after the only snake head in Shandong province; Channa argus. We caught one specimen. I could not save him - the starving team insisted on a tasty meal.

We have been to Yunnan province in SW China fishing in tributaries of the Red River and Mekong. We yielded plenty of cyprinids, nemacheilid & balitorid loaches, and sisorid catfishes. Aside fishing, we visited Swallow Cave in Yanzidong and famous rice terraces of Hani people between Xinjie - Panzhihua - Lvchun.

Yunnan Province, Red River, Mekong - December 2009/January 2010

United States of America

A day trip to one of the plenty creeks in Eastern Utah, USA. We found just two fish species, viz. the Brown Trout Salmo trutta Linnaeus, 1758, and the cisco Coregonus clupeaformis (Mitchill, 1818).

Eastern Utah - September 2010

Yunnan Province, Mekong, Red River - June 2010

The rainy season transformed the majority of roads into muddy paths. Daily heavy rain falls coupled with high temperatures are the attributes when travelling to Xishuangbanna in summer. We mainly target destinations encompassed by the Mekong basin, but also fished in Red River basin on our route back to Kunming. Our target fishes were sisorid catfishes of the Oreoglanis genera group (so called Xglanis) said to occur north of Simao in Mekong basin; we completely failed in this matter due to unexpected difficult road conditions.

in prep. !!!

The northern part of Georgia features a diverse cyprinid fauna. Notropis and Cyprinella spp. were top ranked on the list of favourites. They are populating upper strata in northern Georgia hillstreams while a diverse variety of endemic crayfishes dwell among the rocks and boulders. I caught the target species Notropis chrosomus (Jordan, 1877) in a deeply hidden forest stream in Floyd County, GA. Another highlight was the discovery of fantastically colored, yet undescribed Cottus species in Fannin County, GA.  

Georgia - April 2010

Yunnan Province, Mekong - January 2011

Yunnan Province, Mekong, Salween - October 2010

On this trip Mike Bisset, Tsinghua University, Beijing, the leading spiny eel expert, accompanied me. We had mastacembelids as well as some nemacheilids on our target list. A major achievement of this excursion was that we could recollect Schistura latifasciata from its terra typica. This species is widely confused with other similar species. The topotypic material will help us to rearrange the Schistura puzzle.

This excursion led me into the very boonies of Xishuangbanna. The aim was to collect again at spots I have visited during the rainy season in order to verify water parameters and the fish assemblage composition. And again the yield of nemacheilids, cyprinids & sisorids was tremendous.

in prep. !!!

in prep. !!!

Direct link to the Swallow Cave photographs.

Direct link to the Hani People Rice Terraces’ photographs.

updated !!!

Laguna Miramar, Chiapas; Rio Coatzacoalcos, Oaxaca - March 2011

Made all the trip down to fabulous Laguna Miramar, a pristine freshwater lake deeply hidden the boonies of the Lacandon jungle in Chiapas. Found an untouched ecosystem featuring cristall clear water and breathtaking sceneries. Secondly I have fished some upper breaches of the Rio Coatzacoalcos in Oaxaca. 

in prep. !!!

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