Publication2 med aquascape Publication1cs complete | Page 141

time at this point but the marked route we had to
move quickly to another location, which would be
Bascam River home to species like Paraneetroplus
omonti, Chuco intermedium and Theraps coerule-
us. So we walked following the route after tempo-
rarily losing the road. With the help of some locals
who did not understand why we wanted a place
without many people, they indicated a perfect
place where we saw the aforementioned species.
Looking at the different rivers I had to question
why Chuco intermedium was listed in “Standard
059” (Mexican classification of threatened spe-
cies) as threatened as we saw it in abundance, I
think this statement deserves an update, but
that's another topic.
With weariness we returned to Villahermosa to
prepare the fishes that would make the trip back
by air to Monterrey, as people from CARAC had
reached Tabasco thereby the next day we stopped
at the Rio Carrizal to admire its majesty, this river
has cloudy water because their margins are mud-
dy and drag much material that limits visibility.
We did not want to leave without first making a
try and where there were some surprises. Here we
found Parachromis managuensis, Paratheraps bi-
fasciatus, a huge koi extremely ill and thousands
of "plecostomus" plus Astyanax mexicanus.
We finally got part of our goal to find fish of the
Theraps genus although we could not complete
the other objectives, but that's always a good ex-
cuse to return on another trip to this part of my
beloved country with so many wonderful and sad-
ly not all Mexicans appreciate!
All Photography © Francisco Gutierrez Franco
Theraps irregularis
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