Duckbilled buntingi

Adrianichthys kruyti

FAMILY

Adrianichthyidae

TAXONOMY

Adrianichthys kruyti Weber, 1913, Lake Poso, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Duckbill Poso minnow; German: Entenschnabelkärpfling.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Maximum length about 4.3 in (11 cm). Large, horizontal, duck-bill shaped mouth, with upper jaw overhanging lower; eyes large, extend beyond dorsal head-profile when viewed from side. Elongate, somewhat compressed.

DISTRIBUTION

Lake Poso, Sulawesi.

HABITAT

Deeper waters of Lake Poso.

BEHAVIOR

Unknown.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Unknown.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Unknown, though one specimen reported to be a hermaphrodite.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List; Harrison and Stiassny (1999) think it possibly extinct.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Kottelat reported that the adrianichthyids he observed were heavily parasitized by copepods; native fisherman say these parasites became a problem when Clarias was introduced into Lake Poso in the early 1980s. Voracious snakeheads have also been introduced into the lake, and may have led to the decline of the endemic fishes. He argues that the duckbilled buntingi may not be extinct, but just no longer abundant enough for fisherman to expend effort and so never observed. Whatever its status, Adrianichthys kruyti is an example of an endemic species important as a fishery declining dramatically following exotic species introductions by humans.