Suriya and Kasat: Full Team Revisited Ep.VI

The fence leaded me about 100 meters downstream from our camp. Here there was a small bamboo bridge about 5 meters above the water level. During the dry season the water was only a few feet deep. The BPP told me that during the rainy season the water raise so high that he can wash his cloth from this bridge. The bridge was obviously hand-made and very shaky. I slowly walked to the middle of the river and look further down stream. About 50 meters away, there was another small ridge and right after was a shallow pool, where there was a lot of leaf deposit. It was a prime spot for debris loving species but I didn’t have anything to catch them so I have to walk back to the camp first.

When I got back, the orchid team has left to the mountain, the Siamensis team were all in the river diving already. I grabbed a large dip net and walked back to the shallow pool. The technique was to drag the net all the way to the bottom, so that I get a little bit of sand, the leaf and hopefully the fish that live in it. Soon, I caught a small Amblyceps and 2 species of Pangio, a short one and a long one. Later the Amblyceps was ID by Mr.Chaiwut as A. caecutiens, which was a new record for Thailand. The short Pangio was a P. fusca and the long one was an un-described species!

After that I joined the team in skin diving the Suriya to take under water pictures of the fishes. I also have another fish left to see here, it was one of my most favorite fish in the whole world. In fact, we like it so much that it was featured in our group’s logo, the Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki. This fish was first discovered in the flood plain of Mae Klong river in Thailand. Then, after years of under pressure from collection for aquarium trade, their population was finished off by 3 hydrological dams up the river which totally cease the river to flood the plain. The fish has disappeared from our natural water. For 30 some years, there has been no confirmed report of this species in the natural water. Y. sidthimunki that still available in the trade were all from hormone induced spawning of the old wild stock. The news from the farms came out that each year, each generation; they get less and less fish due to in-breeding. They said if the trend continued we would see the last of Y. sidthimunki in our life time. This was a shocking news that sent us all very worry.

Then the Ataran river –known in Thailand as Kasa river- was being explored in Myanmar, which resulted in many new fish species. Some were so attractive that they became very popular in short period of time. One of which was B. kubotai. After being discovered in 2001 this species was being imported in to Thailand in large quantity each season, many thousands I would guess. Then with the shipment of B. kubotai some Y. sidthimunki was found. This was a great news for us all, to know that the little loach still exist in the wild that our in-bred captive stock can be rejuvenated with this new population.

So, if they exist in the Ataran, and all others fish in Ataran can be found in Suriya, then it is reasonable to expect the Y. sidthimunki here too. With an underwater camera in my hand, I was determined to be the first person to take picture of this fish under water.