Collecting and study fish.
Text & photob by: Alf Stalsberg.
Guyana is not the first country people go to, in fact I think there is very few people going there. Why?? Well it's not a tourist place, even though there is a lot of thing to see and do, but there is no beaches as a start. But if you go there to study the wildlife fauna, you will find a lot. And I don't think I've seen so much of the wildlife before on my trips. I've seen some of it, but not so much as this time in Guyana.
So let me start with the begining. Why going there in the first place?? Well there was some fish I would like to bring back. Aequidens potaroensis, Apistogramma, Nannacara, Livebearers, Corydoras and more. I start to plan the trip in good time, staying out in the bush need some planning. First checking out the ticket price and how to get there.
We flew from Norway to London, meet my other friends there, and we started out on the wrong foot nearly missing our plane. You see we was so happy after a loooonng waiting to check in, and when we was ready we went into a Pub to cool down with a beer. Finish the first beer order another one, the one of the boys said, what time was the departure?? One grab the ticket and look. And he said, the plane is leaving a quarter after twelve!! And the clock was five minutes past twelve. Guess who got a rocket in the back!! We jump up and run to the gate and they was saying "last call", but we made it.
We flew with BWIA, to Trinidad and landed first at Barbados and then Trinidad. At Trinidad we had to waite four hours before we flew to Georgtown in Guyana. While waiting at the airport in Trinidad, we was discussing what BWIA was short for. We did nort find anything before I went to the loo. You all know about the writings at the wall, and there I found the translation for BWIA. "Brittains worst investment abroad"?? We found out later what the letters was short for, and that was "Best West Indies Airlines", and I had nothing to complain about.Getting our baggage and getting through custome then we could walk out, from the airport in Guyana.
Outside I was met by an English friend called Duncan Pears, he was working here in Guyana on a two years contract as a teacher in forestry. A very nice guy, and he helped us a lot. He met us with the small school bus, and we got all our stuff in it and heading for our Hotel. Our Hotel was not Sheraton, but a small, very and nice guest house with a very nice and friendly owners.
The sign outside the Rima guesthouse.
When we had settled in our rooms we went out and down to a Chinese Restaurant call New Thriving Restaurant, and this was good.
In the morning the day after and after a good breakfast, we decide to take a look at the Paramaribo town. We did not go fare, and we brought our dipnet and outside the guesthouse there was a small ditch with not much water, but it was fish there, guppy and Pecilia picta. The fish try to find a place in the shadow under the small "bridge", but there was not room for all, but later, there was a shover that increase the amount of water in the ditch and cool it down a bit. We was waiting on our contact person, namely Duncan Pears, and he came and guiding as to the square where there was a marked place, from there we plan to take a trip to the Botanical garden to have a look there. There it was also a zoo and a small aquarium that was not very impressive. After the zoo it was back to the guesthouse for lunch and a little nap.The day after we should pick up our cars and out and start collecting fish. We decide to go down along the coast to see what we would find. We was going down to a place called Mahaica, but we did some stop before that to check out a pond. There we collect Poecilia pict and a Molly type. We took watersamles too. pH was 6,8 dH 3 Nitrit 0 and possision was N- 06-44' 25" W-057-57' 020" and the temperature was at noon 31 C in water and 35C in the air. Then we continue to Mahaica and tool some photos of an Anableps type and then a few cold beer before we drove further out to a place called Can Grove.
We collect several type of fish, Cichlasoma bimaculata, Nandida (Schomburgi), Nannostomus beckfordi, Copella, Gold Tetra, Hemmigramus type, Rivulus type,Apistogramma steindachneri and Crenicichla sp. Afre breakfast the day after we start on road up to Linden, but we did not get very far before we had to stop to check a place called Madwani Creek, it was very teacolor water and the sight under water was not very good.
So we crossed the road and enter some small ponds or you can call them mudholes, but we did collect fish there. It was Rivulus sp., Leavefish, Copella type,and in the River I collected Crenicichla sp.,A. steindachneri, Nannostomus marginatus, and a Nannostomus sp."unilineatus who was very pretty, and we also collect a small Flagcichlid (Mesonauta)and Poecilocharax weitzmani,Crenuchus spilurus, and then it was an Acaronia or maybe it was Branchopsis?
The watersamples at Madwani was pH 6,4 dH 6 kH 0 and Nitrit was 0. Poss was N 06 -30' W 50- 12' A little further up the road we stop at a small river and the place was called Kurukuru, this wa also with black water,but was a better biotop to dive in. We collect Loricaria, A. steindahneri, possible Aequidens tetramerus, Crenichicla sp.,Mesonauta, different Tetras and Nanacara anomala. ph 6,4-dH6 and kH =. Water temperature 24,5 C and air was 33 C. The time were running fast when you enjoy yourself like we did, and we decide to continue up to Linden because it was the end of the day and we was not sure how far it was up to Linden and to find a place to stay.
We past several nice biotopes on our way up to Linden and decide to make some stop when we was going back to Georgetown.
The Hotel we found look good, I'm not sure if it was the owner or the Hotel who had the name Barrow,but it was okay. And we had a nice breakfast the day after.
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