Thursday 6 June 2024

Freshwater fishes of Sabah (year 2024)

 

Sabah @ northern part of Borneo is hot spot for biodiversity of freshwater hill stream loaches especially the Borneo Sucker fish. In this trip, I met some species that I never seen before:


Gastromyzon lepidogaster



Katibasia sp.

What a surprise to meet Katibasia sp. in Sabah! Katibasia is a genus of hill stream loach only found in Katibas river & nearby rivers (Rajang river basin) in Sarawak but my friend discovered it few years ago in north Borneo. Before this, nobody found this genus of loach outside Rajang river. The original location of Katibasia in Sabah is destroyed cos of muds washed into river due to deforestation for new plantation. Luckily, we found another river where got a few of them living together with Gastromyzon (Borneo sucker)

Katibasia sp.





Gastromyzon venustus from northern Borneo (Brunei, northern Sarawak & Sabah). It is also known as Gastromyzon sp. "sunset" cos the fins looks like sunset colour

Katibasia sp.


Unknown species of Borneo sucker from Sabah. I called it Gastromyzon sp. "tiger stripes".  It looks a bit like G. venustus (a.k.a. G. sp. "sunset") from northern Borneo.

Gastromyzon sp. "tiger stripes". 

Gastromyzon sp. "tiger stripes". 


Gastromyzon sp. "tiger stripes". 





Gastromyzon lepidogaster


Gastromyzon lepidogaster (juvenile)








Gastromyzon venustus from northern Borneo (Brunei, northern Sarawak & Sabah). It is also known as Gastromyzon sp. "sunset" cos the fins looks like sunset colour








Gastromyzon sp. "tiger stripes". 


Gastromyzon lepidogaster