JBL Expedition 2 - Back from Colombia with new research results

It was not just a second expedition to the same destination to give even more applicants the opportunity to participate in a JBL aquaristic research expedition, it was also a journey to a region where the water level after the rainy season was now six meters higher than during the first JBL expedition in February 2022. Streams became rivers, banks became impressively sized submerged forests!

In the dry season, all the fish gathered in the “leftover waters" still there. The advantage was that the fish were present in concentrated form and the chance to see Altum angelfish and freshwater stingrays was much higher than after the rainy season, where the fish can spread over a huge area, where they are of course not so easy to find.

But it was precisely these submerged forests that provided the opportunity for the 36 participants to observe fish foraging in a way that was completely different from foraging in the dry season. Now there were fruits and seeds of the plants on the menu, to which the fish have no access in the dry season when the water level is low.

The travel period at the end of November offered another spectacular advantage: it gave us the chance to see Caño Cristales in southern Colombia, with its world-famous endemic red plant Rhyncolacis clavigerain in full bloom. In November, it begins to form underwater blossoms which disperse its seeds as the plants continue to grow emersed in the dry season that then begins.

In addition to water analyses, light measurements, and observations, water temperature measurements were made for the first time using a data logger to obtain real data on the contentious issue of nighttime temperature drops.

All the research results, photos of the biotopes above and below water, and videos will soon be published on the JBL homepage and in trade magazines.

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