Diversity and distribution of ichthyofauna in streams of the middle and lower Tibagi river basin, Paraná, Brazil

Check List 14(1): 43-53, doi: 10.15560/14.1.43

Alexander Claro-García^‡, Fernando M. Assega^‡, Oscar A. Shibatta^‡

‡ Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, Brazil

Corresponding author: Alexander Claro-García ( alessclaro@gmail.com )

Academic editor: Sarah Steele

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Claro-García A, Assega FM, Shibatta OA (2018) Diversity and distribution of ichthyofauna in streams of the middle and lower Tibagi river basin, Paraná, Brazil. Check List 14(1): 43-53. https://doi.org/10.15560/14.1.43

Abstract

This study investigates the distribution and structure of the assemblages of fishes in tributaries of middle and lower sections of Tibagi river basin. The samples were conducted quarterly from December 2013 through December 2014, in 24 sampling sites of 8 tributaries. A total of 5643 individuals belonging to 44 species distributed in 13 families and 5 orders are reported. The families Characidae, Loricariidae, and Heptapteridae were predominant; Astyanax paranae, Phalloceros harpagos, Piabina argentea, Astyanax bockmanni, and Trichomycterus davisi were the most abundant species. Four non-native species were collected: Coptodon rendalli, Poecilia reticulata, Xiphophorus hellerii, and Oreochromis niloticus. The fish fauna of the middle and lower sections of Tibagi river basin has previously been threatened by human activities such as urbanization, industry, agriculture, and currently with dam construction.

Keywords

Freshwater fishes; Neotropical region; species inventory; upper Paraná river basin