''Pimelodella kronei'' is a species of

three-barbeled catfish The Heptapteridae, or three-barbeled catfishes, are a family of catfish that originate from the Americas. Most species are restricted to South America, but '' Imparfinis lineatus'', '' Nemuroglanis panamensis'' and '' Pimelodella chagresi'' are ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Brazil. Discovered by the German naturalist

Sigismund Ernst Richard Krone Sigismund Ernst Richard Krone was a German naturalist, zoologist, spelunker, archaeologist and researcher born on 18 June 1861 in Dresden, Germany. Having been the discoverer of the Devil's Cave in 1891, together with the Danish naturalist Pet ...

, it was the first

troglobitic A troglobite (or, formally, troglobiont) is an animal species, or population of a species, strictly bound to underground habitats, such as caves. These are separate from species that mainly live in above-ground habitats but are also able to live u ...

fish described in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, but several others have been described later.

Description

''Pimelodella kronei'' is an

troglobitic species, so exclusively subterranean, found in cave streams along the

Betari River Betari ( fa, بطاري, also Romanized as Beţārī) is a village in Kabgian Rural District, Kabgian District, Dana County, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called ...

basin, a tributary of the upper

Ribeira de Iguape River The Ribeira de Iguape River ( pt, Rio Ribeira de Iguape), or simply the Ribeira River ( pt, Rio Ribeira), is a river of Paraná and São Paulo states in southeastern Brazil. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Iguape. The river is home to sever ...

. The species is adapted to food scarcity typical of the underground and seems to be in the midst of a process of loss of cryptobiotic habits - the blind catfish are little or no photophobic and spend a lot of time actively exploring the whole environment, not only the bottom but also the water column and the surface, and as other troglobitic fish, is oriented toward any stimulus, apparently interpreting them as a sign of food. It is highly susceptible to environmental fluctuations, depending on the relative stability of the underground, and with low rates of reproduction and growth (it grows less than 1 mm a month, but has high longevity of 15 to 20 years) and therefore it presents low capacity to replace the population losses due to natural or anthropogenic causes. The increase in activity and the loss of these defense mechanisms makes it a very vulnerable species. This fish reaches a length of SL.

References

External links

Data for ''Pimelodella kronei''
— at Fishbase.us kronei Catfish of South America Endemic fish of Brazil Freshwater fish of Brazil Cave fish Environment of Paraná (state) Environment of São Paulo (state) Fish described in 1907 Taxa named by Alípio de Miranda-Ribeiro Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{catfish-stub