Animalia Life
Adrianichthys kruyti
FAMILY
Adrianichthyidae
TAXONOMY
Adrianichthys kruyti Weber, 1913, Lake Poso, Sulawesi, Indonesia.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Duckbill Poso minnow; German: Entenschnabelkдrpfling.
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.
Photo Gallery of - Duckbilled buntingi
