Fishes from Yarinacocha lake: an emblematic Amazonian ecosystem in the lower Ucayali River basin, Pucallpa, Peru

Abstract

The Yarinacocha lake is an emblematic ecosystem of the Peruvian Amazon, representing the main point of fish landing and a tourist attraction in the city of Pucallpa. The wide fauna diversity in this area has made it the target of various studies, although for fish species most of them were focused on commercial species. In this work, we carried out the first ichthyofauna species inventory of the Yarinacocha lake, sampling throughout the entire lake during the rainy and dry seasons and considering also all previously recorded species deposited in the Ichthyological Collection of the MUSM with the same locality. A total of 164 fish species were recorded, representing 10 orders (plus Eupercaria), 34 families and 116 genera. Characiformes was the order with more species (68 spp., 41.5%) followed by Siluriformes (59 spp., 36%), Cichliformes (17 spp., 10.5%), and Gymnotiformes (8 spp., 4.9%). The most highly represented families, including almost 55.5% of the total diversity obtained, were Characidae (23 spp., 14%), followed by Cichlidae (17 spp., 10.4%), Loricariidae (14 spp., 8.5%), Pimelodidae (13 spp., 7.9%), Doradidae (13 spp., 7.4%) and Anostomidae (12 spp., 7.3%). From the total fish species recorded in this study, only 22 are considered protected species following the IUCN criteria and 109 species have commercial importance, including 90 ornamental species (54.8%). Our results contribute to the knowledge of the ichthyofauna of the Yarinacocha lake and can be used as a starting point for its conservation and sustainable management over time.

Riqueza De Euglenophyta en La Laguna Yarinacocha Pucallpa, Ucayali), Incluyendo Nuevos Registros Para El Perú

“…Por otro lado, el impacto de actividades humanas en la zona puede alterar de manera significativa la concentración de materia orgánica en el agua. En ese sentido, las Euglenophyceae, otros componentes del fitoplancton, e incluso organismos de otras comunidades, como los peces, presentes en la laguna Yarinacocha pueden variar en su composición, riqueza y abundancia como consecuencia de la perturbación a este ecosistema (Aylas et al 2023).…”