THE SECOND SMALLEST FRESHWATER FISH ON EARTH!!!
Date : January 26, 2005
The smallest fish in the world is recently published in the newspapers from all over the world. Two new species of freshwater fish from the new genus Paedocypris are described by the scientists from Europe & Singapore recently.
The smallest one is found in the peat swamp of Sumatra called Paedocypris progenetica. The length is around 7.9mm for the female which reach the sexual maturity!!!
The second smallest freshwater fish is related species to the one mentioned above called Paedocypris micromegethes. This species is found in the peat swamp of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. The length (for a female which reach sexual maturity) is around 8.8mm only!
This fish is very fragile. It will die within a few minutes once it is left out of water.
For more info., please visit Raffles Museum of Singapore website :
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/news/index.php?entry=/pub/20060125-Paedocypris.txt
TAKE NOTE : The second smallest fish is a marine gobioid fish called Trimmatom nanus which reach 8mm when it is sexually matured and another marine gobioid fish, Schindleria brevipinguis is 8.4mm for female when it is sexually matured. Both of the fish mentioned here are marine fish, not freshwater fish. Hence, Paedocypris micromegethes from Sarawak is the second smallest freshwater fish in the world.
New species from Sarawak, Paedocypris micromegethes
This species is the most smallest fish I ever found in Sarawak!
It only lives in blackwater which the PH is very low and acidic.
It is a schooling fish.
Look!!! How small they are!!!!
Close up photo.
This is the habitat of the fish. The aquatic plant, Cryptocoryne pallidinervia is growing abundantly here.
The blackwater stream where I found this little fish.
The stream is not flowing fast.
Reference:
Kottelat, M., Britz, R., Tan, H.H., Witte,K-E. 2006 Paedocypris, a new genus of Southeast Asian cyprinid fish with a remarkable sexual dimorphism, comprises the world's smallest vertebrate. Proceedings of The Royal Society B, 1-5. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3419)
My new reference book (purchased from local bookstore) :
The author : Katherine Atack
ISBN: 983-812-113-4
Published by: Natural History Publications (Borneo) Sdn. Bhd.
If you are interested to purchase this book, you can buy it online; just log on to the official site of the publisher:
