AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR AID USE ONLY WASHINGTON, 0. C. 20523 BIBLIOGRAPHIC INPUT SHEET A. PRIMARY I. SUBJECT Agriculture CLASSI- FICATION B. SECONDARY Fisheries 2. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Fishes of the Lao Mekong Basin 3. AUTHOR(S) Yasuhiko Taki 4. DOCUMENT DATE 1S" NUMBER OF PAGES 16. ARC NUMBER 1974I 237p ARC 7. REFERENCE ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS U.S. Agency for International Development Agriculture Division Washington, D.C. 20523 8. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES (Sponsoring Organization, Publishers, Availability) 9. ABSTRACT The present work is based primarily on a collection of fishes made in Laos by the author in the year 1970-1971 as a part of the fisheries development project sponsored by USAID Mission to Laos, and to a lesser extent on a collection made there by the author in 1969. All species derived from these collections, 146 in number, are fully described and illustrated. This catalogue also deals with published accounts pertaining to Laos by recent authors, i.e. Fowler (1934a, 1935b, 1937), Pellegrin and Fang (1940), Smith (1945), Serrene (1951), and Taki (1968), from which 57 species are cited. The citation includes a number of fishes collected in Thailand at several places on the Mekong River where the flow is shared by Laos and Thailand. These fishes taken in the Thai-Lao Mekong, although they have been included in Thai fish fauna, are regarded as inhabitants of Laotian water as well as of Thai. Thus the present publication reports altogether 203 species falling into 31 families from the Lao Mekong basin. 10. CONTROL NUMBER 11. PRICE OF DOCUMENT PN-AAB- I 12. DESCRIPTORS 13. PROJECT NUMBER Laos, Thailand, Mekong River, Collection, Species, Fish Families T4. CONTRACT NUMBER AID-439-699 15. TYPE OF DOCUMENT Consultant Report AID 590-1 (4741 FISHES OF THE LAO MEKONG BASIN BY YASUHIKO TAKI FISHERIES TEAM UNITED STATES CONSULTANTS, INC. CONTRACT NO. AID-439-699 UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT MISSION TO LAOS AGRICULTURE DIVISION 4' 1974 CONTENTS page PREFACE. ......... .*. ............ v FOREWORD ........... ..................... vi I. INTRODUCTION .......... ................. 1 Scope and presentation . .. .......... 1 Locality of the collection and depository of the specimens . .. .. ....... 10 A history of studies on Laotian fishes . 10 Geography, climate and seasonal movement of fishes . 11 Acknowledgements ....... ................. 17 II. ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF FAMILIES . 18 III. LIST OF FISHES . .. o o . 36 IV. DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES . 44 Family Dasyatidae (Stingrays) . 44 Family Notopteridae (Featherbacks). ......... 45 Family Clupeidae (Herrings) .. ... 47 Family Bagrdae (Bagrid catfishes) ... 49 Family Siluridae (Silurid catfishes) . .* 58 Family Pangasiidae (Pangasiid catfishes) .. 68 Family Akysidae (Akysid catfishes) . 78 Family Sisoridae (Sisorid catfishes). 80 Family Clariidae (Clariid catfishes) . 83 Family Heteropneustidae (Heteropneustid catfishes) . 85 Family Cyprinidae (Carps and minnows) . ... 86 iii Subfamily Cultrinae ................ 86 Subfamily Acheilognathinae . 92 Subfamily Danioinae .................. 92 'Subfamily Barbinae ......... .. .. 106 Family Gyrinocheilidae (Gyrinocheilids) . .. 161 Family Homalopteridae (Homalopterids) ........ 163 Family Cobitidae (Loaches) .............. 165 Subfamily Botinae ......... ........ 165 Subfamily Cobitinae ........ ....... 172 Subfamily Noemacheilinae . ... 176 Family Belonidae (Needlefishes) ........... 178 Family Channidae (Snakweeads) ............ 179 Family Anabantidae frliziling perches) . .... 182 Family Belontidae ((Couramnies and their allies). 183 Family Osphronemidae (Giant gouramy) ........ 187 Family Nandidae (Nandis) . ......... 188 Family Pristolepidae (Pristolepids) . ......... 189 Family Centropomidae (Snooks and glassfishes). 191 Family Toxotidae (Archerfishes) . ....... 192 Family Lobotidae (Pripletails) . ........ 193 Family Sciaenidae (Drums and croakers') ........ 194 Family Gobiidae (Gobies) . 0 . ... .. 195 Family Eleotridae (Sleepers) . ... 197 Family Soleidae (Soles) . .. 198 Family Tetraodontidae (Puffers or globefishes). 199 Family Mastacembelidae (Spiny eels) ......... 202 Family Synbranchidae (Swamp eels) . .. ... 204 V. LITERATURE CITED . e e 205 INDEX .211 PREFACE Laos is in many ways an exciting as well as charming country in which to live and work. To take one instance, the scope which still exists here for doing original, even pioneer studies in the field of natural history is remarkable. Such work is all the more rewarding and stimulating if it bears on the important questions of natural re­ sources and food supplies, questions to which the whole human race is now alert and which must be of especial concern to the people of Laos after twenty years of almost continuous war i?, their country. Dr Taki's new book on the fish of Laos is a major achievement in this field. He has in effect tripled the number of species which are properly documented and described as indigenous to Laos. Of course, this is astonishing progress. There are few places in the world where such a feat is imaginable, or more to be desired. The co-operation of the Laotian Fishery authorities, the generous and far-sighted spon­ sorship of the United States Government and the patient research con­ ducted by Dr Taki himself have produced results which will be of great benefit to the people of Laos. Naturally, the fish which Dr Taki has identified and studied are not unknown to the Lao people. The majority of them are familiar, at least in the places where they are relatively abundant, to the local inhabitants. But hitherto there has been nothing which could be des­ cribed as a scientific catalogue of the fish of Laos available for all to consult and providing a proper basis for work in that field. This is what we now have; and people who are working in many different dis­ ciplines towards the development of Laos will be helped by it. Nor is it only in Laos that these benefits will be felt. They apply also to all the riparian states of the Mekong and indeed to all the neigh­ bours of Laos - which is a country with many neighbours. One could justlyadd that Dr Taki's work has aroused the interest of ichthyologists the world over. It so happens that I am one of the numerous people who will benefit directly from his work. It is exactly what I need as a scientific frame­ work on which to base a small study of mine about the principal edible fish of Laos and the Lao ways of preparing them. So it is with keen personal gratitude, as well as a more objective appreciation of his achievement, that I congratulate Dr Taki and salute the appearance of his book. Vientiane, Laos Alan E. Davidson July 1974 v FOREWORD This publication by Dr. Yasuhiko Taki has developed in greater detail and volume the work earlier prepared in his Notes on a Col- lection of Fishes from Lowland Laos, 1968. The work of collecting fish was undertaken as a side-activity to his duties of assisting the Royal Lao Government Fisheries Service develop the fish hatchery at Pakse. As USAID Contract Representative to the United States Consultants, Inc. contract team, cooperation was given to allow periodic collection of fish in different geographic areas of Laos. The scientific descriptions provided by Dr. Taki have been developed from several periods of work in Laos. Final refinement of field data was done at his positionwith the Institute for Breeding Research at Tokyo University of Agriculture. The results of this work are an important step in classifying and describing much of the fish population of Laos. With the illustra­ tions and descriptions, a handbook is now available for workers in the field of fisheries to know the fish species in common terms. USAID has been most fortunate to have Dr. Taki working with the fisheries development team. This publication is a valuable addition­ al result which will have long-lasting influence in Laos. vi I. INTRODUCTION Scope and Presentation The present work is based primarily on a collection of fishes made in Laos by the author in the year 1970-1971 as a part of the fisheries development project sponsored by USAID Mission to Laos, and to a lesser extent on a collection made there by the author in 1969. All species derived from these collections, 146 in number, are fully described and illustrated. This catalogue also deals with published accounts pertaining to Laos by recent authors, i. e. Fowler ( 1934a, 1935b, 1937), Pellegrin and Fang (1940), Smith (1945), Serrene (1951), and Taki (1968), from which 57 species are cited. The citation in­ cludes a number of fishes collected in Thailand at several places on the Mekong River where the flow is shared by Laos and Thailand. These fishes taken in the Thai-Lao Mekong, although they have been included in Thai fish fauna, are regarded as inhabitants of Laotian water as well as of Thai. Thus the present publication reports al­ together 203 species falling into 31 families from the Lao Mekong basin. In'The Fresh -Water Fishes of Siam or Thailand' Smith (1945) described as many as 560 species. Even if scores of species that normally occur in the sea and esturine water are excluded from his list, the number of freshwater fishes in Thailand is far greater than that of Laotian fishes encountered in the present catalogue. However, this by no means indicates poorer fish fauna in Laos, but merely notes the scantiness of studies thus far made of Laotian fishes. The classification and sequence of orders and families follow Gosline's ( 1971 ) arrangement with a modification as follows: The Siluriformes and Cypriniformes are assigned to distinct orders as in Greenwood et al. ( 1966 ). The subdivision of the Cyprinidae and of the Cobitidae is that of Banarescu (1968). Identification of spe­ cies was based mainly on Bleeker (1851a, b, c, d, e, 1852a, b, c, 1853a, b, 1854, 1855a, b, 1857, 1859-1860), Weber and de Beaufort (1911 - 1962), Fowler ( 1934a, b, 1935a, b, 1937, 1939), and Smith (1945). Also, for some limited groups of fishes, Regan (1909), Hora (1922, 1932 ), Smith (1931, 1933a, b, 1934 ), Chevey (1932 ) Pel­ legrin and Fang ( 1940 ), Silas ( 1952 ), Brittan ( 1954 ), Klausewitz (1957a, b, 1959), Alfred (1963a, b), d'Aubenton and Blanc (1966), and Banarescu ( 1969 ) were referred to.