Discovering new fish species in Brazil

A group of international fishermen from the group of Dr. Ralf Britz (London Museum of Natural History) published descriptions of a new species of fish found in Rio Negro, in the Amazon, Brazil.

Rio Negro is a rich habitat of small fish, which are considered miniatures of other fish.

Photo: Sci-News / Ralf Britz

In this river section, water is similar to black tea and acidity is much higher than rainwater, with a pH of 4.5 - 5. This habitat is similar to peat swamp in Indonesia, where it is discovered. The world's smallest fish in 2006, Paedocypris progenetica.

Newly named fish species is Priocharax nanus . In Latin, Nanus means a dwarf, referring to the small size of this fish as an adult.

In the genus Priocharax, it ranks third, the previous two species are Priocharax ariel and Priocharax pygmaeus. But, the biggest difference of the new fish is that the fins and pectoral fins are not made of bone but completely with cartilage.

Sci-News magazine reported that the Priocharax nanus fish is not more than 15mm long with many characteristics of other fish, it is semi-transparent fish (opaque) , so it is easy to avoid enemies.

The full text of this scientific article has been published by Dr. Ralf Britz in the journal Neotropical Ichthyology.