Re: My L46 tanks
Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 3:25 pm
Here is the thing. That vid and most of the other videos and pictures one may see of the Xingu are from shallower and slower running areas. i had the good fortune to listen to Hans-Georg Evers speak on the Loricariidae of the Xingu and he talked at length about zebras. Perhaps the most impressive part of his talk was the following (this is from a post i made on another site:
I would assume there are many more larger rocks in the deeper faster areas as big water moving hard and fast can move and deposit much larger rocks. I would also think that the sand layout would be different as it would be harder for it collect all over and might be somewhat limited to places that are more sheltered. I would expect there is more exposed bedrock as well. However, not having been down there and not having seen pictures taken with artificial lights, I can not say for sure.
So what the floor of the Xingu may actually look like where the zebras live will look somewhat different from what we see in the vid linked above. While we like to add some neat looking fish to our zebra tanks, most of those fish would not be seen in zebra habitats as the current would never permit them to live there.One of the things that really impressed me was when he talked about the collection of zebras. He has actualy gone out with the locals who invited him to try his hand. here is my best recollection of how he described the experience.
Firstly, he explained that zebras live pretty deep, from 5 to 15 meters down (for the Americans here that is 16.4 to 49 feet deep). He also said that the current was unbelievable. Hans has had lots of scuba diving experience, but the locals do not have this gear. They use a compressor in the boat attached to long air lines. the divers use rocks as weights to get down to where the fish are. Because they are so deep it is virtually pitch black down there. So one sees almost nothing and everything is done by feel. The way they collect is the feel for "cavelike" spots and either reach in or overturn rocks and feel for the fish and catch them by hand. Hans said he could barely stay in place holding on with both hands for dear life and wished he had a third arm. But the divers are collecting by feel using one hand while using the other to hold on.
Because only the males cave, males are mostly what they catch this way which explains why females are much harder to get. Hans said even as an experienced diver he had never been down in such a strong current. He said he was so scared he needed to change his pants (I toned that down from how he phrased it). He noted the collecting process was extremely dangerous and that deaths among the divers were common. His guides were pointing to spots and telling him that here this one's son died last year or over there that a diver had drowned a few years before.
Despite the high prices paid for these fish once they reach their final destination, the divers received very little money for their effort. So the next time you buy a wild caught zebra pleco, bear in mind somebody may actually have died trying to make that possible.
I would assume there are many more larger rocks in the deeper faster areas as big water moving hard and fast can move and deposit much larger rocks. I would also think that the sand layout would be different as it would be harder for it collect all over and might be somewhat limited to places that are more sheltered. I would expect there is more exposed bedrock as well. However, not having been down there and not having seen pictures taken with artificial lights, I can not say for sure.