COLLECTING FISH IN THE NIGER RIVER DELTA, NIGERIA, WEST AFRICA
by Vinny Kutty
Originally printed in the Cichid Communique / Pacific Coast Cichlid Assn.
Ed Note: Apparently Vinny is a jack of all trades in this aquatic hobby as I have read articles authored by him in many club publications as well as the Aquatic Gardener and the aquarium magazines. I first heard of him through a series of articles on aquarium plants and lighting necessary to grow them well.
I was a lucky teen. My parents worked for the United Nations and, as a result, I traveled with them to many countries, soaking up different languages and cultures. I'd kept your bread 'm butter aquarium fishes since the early 70's and when I arrived in Nigeria I was quite disappointed to find the country quite devoid of pet stores and their usual stock of guppies and mollies. So I focused my attention on non-fishy flora and fauna back in 1980. Soon after that, I began attending Purdue University back in the US, and that's when I caught the cichlid bug. I went back to Nigeria during the summers on a yearly basis until 1987.
The exact location was Port Harcourt, a large, modern city in the Niger Delta, flourishing from oil money. It is in Southeastern Nigeria, about five degrees north of the equator and about 100 miles from the Cameroon border. It is hot and muggy 10 to 11 months of the year, except for a few weeks in December and January, when a dry, dusty Saharan wind called Harmattan cools things down a bit. It then looks foggy but it is actually fine dust particles. This is a good time to collect because the pools and puddles are shallow.
While most of you probably think of Pelvicachromis when you think about collecting in Nigeria, I found these fish to be difficult to find. It was a lot easier to observe and study Hemichromis species and assorted Tilapiines, as they were everywhere! Tilapia sp. are found all over the tropics now, due to introduction, but that is no reason to treat this interesting group of fish in a sub-cichlid manner. Hemichromis certainly are popular, but the most common varieties are the line-bred aquarium strains often sold as "Turquoise Jewels".
The joys of collecting are immense, but there is a definite freedom in knowing that you don't have to get back to the US for another three months. This gave me the opportunity to observe groups of fish in the wild and then, after a few weeks, collect a few of them and place them in my aquarium for observation of behavioral changes brought on by "domestication".
Most of my collecting locations were around the Niger Delta, near the resort of Lake Oguta, near the village of Ahoada and the numerous streams near Aluu. Aluu and Ahoada are about twenty miles apart and have thousands of pristine streams, creeks and rivers, all of them with blackwater. The dark waters give some of the larger rivers an ominous look. I often went collecting alone in remote places and, once while mucking around in one of these ominous rivers, up to my chest in water, I saw a crocodile slide into the water from the opposite bank. A couple seconds later, a giant dark object brushed against my thighs. After panicking, I found out that the object was just a large tree trunk. I don't remember if I "peed" in my pants but I did remember that I never learned to swim as a kid! I struggled back to shore, dried myself, drove home, and taught myself how to swim, and then went back to the same location with a first aid kit and a big knife. I was enthusiastic but foolish.
My enthusiasm for travel and collecting may match Heiko Bleher's, but I'm no Heiko Bleher. Things often get spooky when alone in the jungle for hours, and your mind begins to play tricks on you. When I felt that way, I almost always got out of the water and settled for observing the fish from above the water, on solid ground. I escaped Bilharzia but an acquaintance didn't; it is a parasite transmitted through snails. If you're in Africa and start urinating blood, look into Bilharzia treatment.
It is difficult not to appreciate the importance of non-cichlid fauna and flora when in the wild. When acquiring cichlids from a pet store, it is easy to ignore other groups of fish and purchase just cichlids, but in the wild cichlids are part of the big picture. I also collected Synodontis sp., Clarias sp., Malapterus sp. (Electric Catfish). I grabbed an electric catfish caught using hook and line with my bare hands. Enthusiastic but foolish.
The only Anabantid I caught repeatedly was Cetnopoma kingsleyae ( a nice brown, wiener-looking fish). Of course you run into a lot of Aphyosemon sp. and Epiplatys sp. but since I didn't have room to house killies, (ahem) I just fed them to my prized Hemichromis fasciatus. The Killi Police have been on my tail about this for 10 years! All I have to say is: perspective! As far as Characins, the most common fish was Brycinus longipinnis. I think they are sold as "long Finned African Tetras" in the pet trade. I am still amazed how these fish make it to the pet stores; I couldn't keep them alive long enough to take them home. In my opinion, they were the hardest fish to transport. I knew there were aquarium fish collectors operating in the area, but to obtain contacts and phone numbers, I would have had to bribe a few people. No thanks. I managed to collect a few fine specimens of a Polypterus sp. and a few Mudskippers (Periophthalmus sp.) on the island of Buguma, south of Port Harcourt. If you get off your boat on to mudskipper "flats", you quickly sink about two feet into the clay; it's an original way to lose shoes. As far as cichlids, I saw large numbers of Tilapia nilotica and Hemichromis fasciatus. These two species share an interesting history. H. fasciatus have been known to attack Tilapias guarding fry and consume their fry. They are also reported to be solitary, vicious animals but, from my experience from observing these predators, I found them to wander around in packs or in breeding pairs. These fish seem to form remarkably stable pair bonds, both in the wild and in captivity. Very rarely have I seen solitary individuals in the wild. I wish I knew if they were pack hunters; one distracts the Tilapia parent, while the others in the pack attack and eat the fry. I do not know of such behavior reported in cichlids, but I also do not know of anyone conducting field studies of the feeding habits of this fish in the wild. I've seen aquarium literature claiming their maximum size to be about a foot but the largest specimen I saw was 7"TL. These fish are the velociraptors of the cichlid family, fast, vicious, medium-sized and highly intelligent.
They're extremely intolerant of conspecifics of the same sex in captivity, and I wish I knew the sex ratios of the roving pack of these fish I saw in the wild. I once released a captive specimen back into the Ahoada River and watched it sit still for almost an hour until a group of conspecifics sawn by, at which time it joined the pack. They will consume Tilapia juveniles almost a third their body size and the relationship of this fish with Tilapia nilotica in captivity is thoroughly captivating. Both of these fish seem to possess a large vocabulary of mutually comprehensive body language. Constant communication takes place even if the two species are at the opposite end of the aquarium. Tilapias seem to recognize H. fasciatus and consequently pounds on the latter, but pounder and poundee appear resigned to this fate.
I've been observing similar recognition behavior in one of my Pike Cichlids (Crenichildla proteus) at home. The pikes spawn frequently and they are housed with some relatively peaceful cichlids like Biotodoma cf. cupido and Laetacara thayeri. I had added two species of tetras to the tank, Black Neons and a micro-predatory tetra (Crenuchus spilurus) of the same size. While both characins would make a convenient mouthful for the pikes, the Black Neons were eaten and the Crenuchus left alone when the pikes spawned. Once the pikes spawned, the predatory tetras were harassed ( more than the other cichlids) and eventually killed, but not eaten! Why are two characins of the same size treated differently? The parents recognize potential predators of their offspring, but what characteristics do they base their "judgments" on? The other cichlids, meanwhile, were beaten into submission so that the pike fry could almost graze on the mucous on their backs.
Back to Nigerian cichlids; I unfortunately did not see many species of Pelvicachromis. I collected some of the blue morph of P. pulcher. These fish were found with Hemichromis cristatus, Brycinus longipinnis, Ctenopoma kingsleyae, and a few species of Epiplatys. The habitat was not blackwater. The water was clear, cool and soft with a pH of 6.5. They preferred the same habitat as H. cristatus, sifting through the mulm near vegetation. They'd venture out onto the open sandy areas a little bit but retreat into the vegetation if I approached. The H. cristatus was a little more comfortable remaining over the light-colored sand. I almost always saw these two species in the northern Delta region in riverside pools and the best place to observe them was near Lake Oguta, about 50 miles north of Port Harcourt.
I vividly remember a rock I perched on while I watched these fish. I used to sit there for hours with the equatorial sun beating down on my bare back. Somehow, I don't remember anything about the heat and humidity. I'd still rather not be anywhere else in the world. Those were the best days of my life, old enough to enjoy life and young enough not to have any cares. The purity, peace and serenity of the locale haunt me to this day. (Authors note 1998: Having been to the Amazon since this article was originally written, I think I can add a couple other places that I'd rather be as well.) Besides P. pulcher, I did not see any others of the genus. I am sure it is because I didn't look in the right places, perhaps I didn't understand their preferred habitats. The same happened with Chromidotilapia guentheri; the only specimens I saw were near dead adults with some local boys who had just caught the fish. Oh well, maybe next time. Another species of Hemichromis I kept was H. elongatus. For additional information on this species, see Buntbarsche Bulletin (Journal of American Cichlid Association) issue number 162 from the summer of 1994. If you happen to look up the article, remember that the photos were mislabeled H. fasciatus. Unless otherwise demanded, local fish collectors will throw out attractively colored specimens and continue exporting the common ones to our hobby.
Ed Note: When I got to this point in the magazine I was reprinting from the last page was missing. So, you will have to imagine what Vinny wrote on it. I felt the above was interesting enough to warrant it's inclusion, even though the end is a guess.